The Last of Us 2 photo mode tips & tricks thread:

Let's start with a simple portrait. This particular room/spot has a nice, soft, bloomy light. Finding good lights & shadows make about 95% of your shot. This thread can hopefully help you with the remaining 5%.

01/20

I usually use high DoF values for face close-ups, and lower values the further I move away from the subject. For landscape shots I usually don't do DoF in this game, but rather try to get everything as sharp as possible.

02/20

I tend to go for the eye contact for portraits. To me it makes the shot less gamey, you're no longer observing, you are interacting with your subject. You have a camera and they're aware of it.

03/20

The Motion Blur slider blurs... the motion. It can add a nice touch to shots involving action and movement. You need a bit of luck with it, sometimes in high action scenes it'll just blur everything.

04/20

You can set a toggle for slow-motion in the Combat Accessibility Options. This is handy for action shots, pausing for a certain expression, or just practising for becoming the next SunhiLegend.

05/20

Do multiple takes. You will not run out of film. I've taken about 1500 shots in TLOU2. Published maybe 40 shots. 10 of them are good. I use PureRef to check out different versions and then pick the best one.

06/20

Tech stuff: set file format to PNG from your PS4 settings. By default it's JPG. I transfer the shots to my PC via USB stick. I resize all 4K shots to 1080 or 1440 pixels in height using Lanczos 3, Lanczos 2 (sharper) or Bicubic Sharper (sharpest).

07/20

no ellie this is a serious thread

08/20

Ellie brought up a good point in the previous tweet: idle animations. These are animations your character does over time when you don't control her. This game has tons of good ones. Observe your allies as well!

09/20

Noir filter at 100% is almost a cheat code for decent shots. I mostly use it at 40-60% for a more desaturated look. I sometimes use other filters, but very rarely.

10/20

I always make sure my shots are clear enough to read in thumbnail form. With large TV's thumbnail-proofing is hard, so it's good to check your PS4 capture folder before "letting go" and unpausing your shot.

11/20

Get your characters wet for some juicy highlights. If there's no rain, jump into lakes, puddles, rivers. If there's no constant source of water, she will get dry in about a minute. Then you need to re-dip her into water.

Holy shit screenshotting is weird.

12/20

If you make Ellie run for a while, she'll get some sweat on her face. These highlights can be a nice addition to portrait shots.

13/20

Flashlight is your best friend. Moonlight is good. Sun is often just too harsh. Random lights found in the game can work well, if approached from a right angle.

14/20

Most of the pretty landscape shots you see of this game are art directed for you by the talented folks at Naughty Dog. There's nothing wrong with shooting them (I do them too), but ideally you'd want to explore a less common angle.

15/20

Quick example of not shooting the most obvious thing, and looking for elements in the level to help frame things in a fresh way.

16/20

I do all my portraits lying sideways on my couch. Then rotate & crop to 2160x2880 (3:4). I sometimes use the scientific method of placing empty toilet paper rolls to help with live 3:4 composition. You can get empty toilet paper rolls by using full toilet paper rolls.

17/20

Wiggle and move your characters around to give them some life. There's plenty of wonderful animations to explore in this game.

18/20

Use your inventory to add something to your scene. Molotovs for fire, smoke bombs for smoke. You can use smokes for some basic background layering.

19/20

Recapping some previous learnings: react to good light, find interesting animations/movement.

20/20