Next week, October 2, Ghost of Yōtei launches on PS5. We’ve gotten a taste of the revenge-fuelled journey to come by way of State of Play, got to grips with the versatility of the game’s multi-weapon combat, discovered how encounters with allies and threats will shape our exploration of the Ezo’s beautiful, rugged landscapes, and even sampled its soundscape.
Today, we’re turning our focus to the game’s Photo Mode.
Like its predecessor, Ghost of Yōtei will give players free reign to freeze the on-screen action at (almost) any point and access a multitude of adjustments to freely mould the moment into an eye-catching still photograph, an evocative cinemagraph, or an impressive tracking shot. Let’s look through the feature set, as well as some suggestions as how to use those settings to snap your way across Ezo.
| 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. |
Note: The example shots below avoid any story spoilers, and are all taken early on into the game, and around the opening area.
Beginner’s guide and tips
If you’re interested in trying out Photo Mode, you’ll find a list of tips and example shots. It’s in no way exhaustive or a deep dive into the technical aspects of photography, but more reflecting on things I consider when taking photos myself. To my fellow virtual photographers: feel free to add your own tips in the comments section!
The basics
- Photo Mode activation is activated by tapping right on the D-Pad. You can activate it at almost any point, be it exploring, in the middle of combat or even when lining up the perfect long range shot.
- You can reset individual settings within their submenus, or reset to default with Square (a confirmation prompt avoids an accidental full reset). The game will save your last set of customisation settings even if you dip in and out of Photo Mode.
- There’s an auto-focus mode that can be toggled on and off.
Try these focus lengths for portraits, landscapes
Ghost of Yōtei’s Photo Mode camera has a focus mode stretching from 12mm – 300mm, which covers pretty much any type of setup you need. There’s a general rule of thumb on which focal lengths are a good fit for certain shot types. But it’s not a hard rule: getting creative with focus lengths can lead to great compositions. My advice? Keep experimenting.
Landscapes: 24mm or below.
Portraits: 35mm is good for those environmental ‘slice of life’ snaps, 50mm for headshots, 80mm for full body portraits of single subjects (especially if you combine with a narrow field of focus, which turns everything in the foreground and background blurry, keeping attention on the subject).
Macro shots: In Ghost of Yōtei, 100mm upwards can help you zoom in on finer details, or bring us up close to moments in the far distance.
Take time to look around
Got your shot? Great. But before you leave Photo Mode, investigate the surrounding landscape with a pan of your camera around. You might catch sight of an until then unobserved detail – be it an NPC interaction, nearby wildlife, or even an alternate composition for your existing shot.
[right] This eagle was but a distant speck over Atsu’s shoulder during a portrait.
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!