| Ghost of Yōtei’s Photo features | |
|---|---|
| Tracking Shot | Record up to 16 placement positions for your camera for an animated tracking shot when you hit Triangle. |
| Focal Length | From 12mm – 300mm |
| Depth of field | Off, or f/1.2 – f/63 |
| Focus distance | 0.1m to 200m |
| Colour Grading | None, Vivid, B/W, B/W Vintage, Storm, Autumn, Samurai Red, Smoke, Maple, Ginkgo, Tintype |
| Colour Grading Intensity | 0 to 100% |
| Exposure Bias | -5.0 to 5.0 |
| Contrast (Black/White) | 1.0 to 3.0 |
| Particles | None, Red Leaves, Yellow Leaves, Bamboo Leaves, Orange Leaves, Green Leaves, Cherry Blossoms, Pampas Pollen, Ash & Embers, Fireflies, Dragonflies, Butterflies, Crows, Song Birds, Violet Petals |
| Particle Intensity | 0 to 100% |
| Wind Speed | 0 to 44% |
| Wind Direction | 0 to 358 |
| Clouds | |
| Time of Day | |
| Weather | Current, Clear, Fog, Heavy Fog, Sunbreak, Overcast, Rain/Snow, Heavy Rain/Snow, Thunder |
| Animated Environment | On/Off |
| Atsu | None, Hide, Muddy, Bloody |
| Emote | Current, Angry, Confused, Dead, Disbelief, Disgusted, Fearful, Happy, Enraged, Intense, Neutral, Sad, Surprised, Amused, annoyed, Concerned, Hopeful |
| Helmet/Mask | Show, Hide |
| Sword Glint | 0.00 to 15.0 |
| Aspect ratio | Standard, 21:9, 32:9 |
| Music | Atsu’s Theme and more |
| Stamps | Multiple stamp types to overlay into photos. |
Play with natural light to get the shot right
You’ve got time on your hands. Cycle through a 24-hour day to test how the accompanying daylight or nighttime lighting impacts your shot. You may welcome harsher shadows due to a midday sun, the softer, warmer light of golden hour (the time just after sunrise or just before sunset), or enjoy the epic nighttime sky. You can also shift natural light until it illuminates a specific part of the photo that you want to draw attention to.
Same shot, a few hours apart. Overcast sky and weak sunlight makes for a strong, but cool first image. Scrubbing the timeline to golden hour coupled with a slight tweak of cloud cover makes for a warmer take in the second shot. Additional tip: tilt the camera angle by a few degrees to inject extra energy into the shot (called a Dutch Angle).
Day and night portraits. The first uses the rising sun to profile Atsu, with part of her body in shadow. The second, moonlight, with Atsu placed in the lower third of the shot, emphasising the sheer scale of the night’s sky behind.
Animated Vs Still Camera
As default, Photo Mode’s camera is set to animated. Atsu and other characters will remain still, but movement caused by the wind, or flocks of birds in flight, remain unaffected. Perfect if you want to generate a cinemagraph-style shot. A dedicated Particle option lets you introduce moving leaves, embers, insects, or birds (as well as the volume of each), with the Wind Direction option helpfully dictating which way particles will flow.
In the first image, we went with a wide focus (24mm or so) to capture the size of the galloping herd and used a Dutch Angle to add a sense of energy. Leaf particles suggested debris being kicked up by hoofs. One mistake I made: I should have chosen Violet Petals as Particles to keep consistent with the flowers in the field.
The second shot is the exact same instance, but using my own advice to pan the camera round to test a different composition, removed particles and changed time of day to golden hour.
Colour grading: set mood, direct focus, get artistic
Ghost of Yōtei’s excellent colour grade options is partly why my photo count is already in triple digits. I’ll snap multiple versions of shots with different colour grades. Let’s take a look at some executions.
Above are four photos at the same location. The only differences? Switching colour grades, and introducing heavy fog. A serene landscape scene is given an almost abstract artistic twist with a few tweaks.
I wanted to highlight the figures in the bottom left to better emphasize the scale of this landscape. I could alter the time of day to find a point when their stretch of field was flooded with sunlight. But a quick colour grade switch gave the area the pop I needed.
Here’s a more creative treatment of colour grading. The Maple Colour Grading desaturates an image of all but the colour red. It helped me notice – and highlight – the scratches on Atsu’s hands. Gingko Colour Grade does similar for yellow, as you can see in the second photo.
Get creative, experiment
As always, it’s how you put everything together to create the final result. I love discovering how Colour Grades and tinkering with Exposure and Contrast really adds extra oomph to a key moment, or sets me off in an entirely different creative direction.
Even a duel gone wrong offers opportunity. Caught by activating Photo Mode as my opponent landed the death blow, orientating the shot to portrait, dialing up contrast and leaning on Maple Colour Grading to emphasize reds.
Your turn
You’ll be able to test out Photo Mode yourself from October 2, and look out for a Share of the Week requesting entries for Ghost of Yōtei in the very near future!
References
- ^ Ghost of Yōtei (www.playstation.com)
- ^ by way of State of Play (www.youtube.com)
- ^ the game’s multi-weapon comba (x.com)
- ^ encounters with allies and threats (x.com)
- ^ sampled its soundscape (www.youtube.com)