Rock, Paper, Shotgun

RPS Asks: Are You A Game Photographer?

By Jim Rossignol on July 28th, 2011 at 12:52 pm.

Do you see?
I was just pondering my screenshots folder, which has recently passed 40gb in heft, and was thinking about clearing it out. But perhaps I should spend a day rescuing the very best shots? I wonder if any of them are really worth keeping. For me, you see, it has become habit to hammer away at the screenshot key as I play any game, so that I have a visual record of my exploits for the purposes of writing about games. But I am not a photographer. I have to work for truly great screenshots, and I would say that usually my game-snaps at, at best, illustrative.

Some of you, though, are far more artful, documentary, or poignant, as is evidenced by some spectacular Flickr galleries, such as Roburky’s record of our years of Eve. But what about you, readers? Care to share any galleries?

UPDATE: a few people have linked to RPS-chum Duncan Harris, who I should have thought to link in here. Some great shots on there.

__________________

« | »

.

140 Comments »

  1. 28/07/2011 at 12:56 Kaira- says:

    I’ve covered wars, y’know.

    On the topic though… I tend to take pictures from time to time if I just can be arsed to set the software up. And when I do take pictures, there never happens those great funny bugs that would otherwise infest the game. God damn.

  3. 28/07/2011 at 12:59 VelvetFistIronGlove says:

    I’ve got a small gallery of screenshots from Portal here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adurdin/sets/72157626515920254/

    And a very large gallery of screenshots from Beyond Good & Evil here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adurdin/sets/72157625988411221/

    I also collected a few lovely shots from Half-Life 2 (none of which I took, but all of which I like) into this post: http://backslashn.com/post/247696414/half-life-2-is-a-beautiful-game

  4. 28/07/2011 at 13:00 Raniz says:

    Way back when I was playing UT2003 I took quite a lot of screenshots in spectator mode.

    I’d set up a multiplayer game (without bots) place my char in a nice spot and then join the game as a spectator from another computer and take take screens that I used as desktop backgrounds.

    Nowdays, I head over to deviantART and browse the abstract 3d section for nice images in a suitable resolution.

    • 28/07/2011 at 13:11 Jim Rossignol says:

      UT2003 allows you to freeze the action when you running just bots, you could create absurdly pretty shots.

    • 28/07/2011 at 14:13 InternetBatman says:

      UT 2003 was absolutely amazing when it came out. I ran Tokara Forrest with just one bot more than once so I could just run around and look at the detail. I was so disappointed when UT3 came out because even though the graphics were better, they weren’t amazing like the first two.

  5. 28/07/2011 at 13:00 el_murph says:

    I’ve started to take more since the screenshotting was introduced to Steam but not something I look to do. However I would like a game like Africa on the PS3 to be released on the PC in which the game was about photography.

    • 28/07/2011 at 13:13 LionsPhil says:

      Yeah, I’m using Steam to grab a bunch of shots of my Champions Online antics. I just wish it had an option to save as PNG, rather than ugly medium-quality JPEGs. CO has its own PNG screenshot key (handy for showing off stupid creations in the chargen), but then lacks the lazy-man’s online gallery.

    • 28/07/2011 at 13:17 Zakkeh says:

      Reminds me of Pokemon Snap….Best game ever

    • 28/07/2011 at 14:53 Xercies says:

      I really wish there was a game that took Pokemons Snaps mechanics and just ran with it, that was a lovely game with gameplay that I had never played before and have never played since.

      Developers of the world hear me!

    • 28/07/2011 at 16:35 DD says:

      More games like Pokemon Snap! I demand this also!

    • 28/07/2011 at 18:24 DdCno1 says:

      There is a fairly similar game for PC: Wild Earth Africa

      I’d almost call it an educational game for children, since it’s quite busy teaching you things about the plants and animals you are required to photograph. But there’s more to it: I like the large open landscapes, which feel very realistic although the presentation was already outdated when it came out in 2007. The feeling of freedom and peace in the open savanna is really great in this title.

  6. 28/07/2011 at 13:02 Isometric says:

    I went through a phase of doing this last year and I ended up ruining some game experiences for myself. I started doing it for my blog initially, then for myself.

    It’s great to look back at your screenshots but I think it can somewhat distract you from what is actually happening. I found myself orchestrating situations specifically for screenshots. This wasn’t how I wanted to play the games in the end.
    I’m much happier taking them every now and then these days, instead of actively hammering away. For me it needs to feel like a natural process.

  7. 28/07/2011 at 13:02 Axon says:

    The only good screenshot I ever took was when a helicopter in NFS:Most Wanted tried to ram me and rammed a truck instead.

    http://i51.tinypic.com/11jq6c9.jpg

  8. 28/07/2011 at 13:02 Faceless says:

    My screenshot folder is one and a half GB big, and that’s after a recent cleanup. I frankly forgot how many Just Cause 2 screenshots I took. It’s mostly either something pretty, or something messed up, like a glitch or some other rare occurrence.

  9. 28/07/2011 at 13:03 StickyNavels says:

    It’s far too easy to take pretty screenshots of EVE. It’s like cheating, almost.

  10. 28/07/2011 at 13:04 Jorum says:

    I have some nice WOW ones. These are the only ones I can access from my work pc though.
    http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/100/jor1.jpg
    http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/9158/jor3.jpg
    http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/7174/jor4.jpg

    Um, that last ones not what it looks like honest…

  11. 28/07/2011 at 13:04 baqueta says:

    I can’t remember the last time I took a game screenshot when it wasn’t for a game I was developing.

    As for galleries though, I have to mention this one: http://deadendthrills.com/

    They aren’t true screenshots (though some are pretty close) but they are definitely worth a look…

  12. 28/07/2011 at 13:04 Lars Westergren says:

    Thanks for reminding me, I should take more screenshots….

    Got these from Dungeon Siege 3 at least.
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/larswestergren/screenshots/

  13. 28/07/2011 at 13:07 Moni says:

    I always think I should be taking more screenshots, but then I start thinking that a still frame doesn’t tell the whole story. I’m also too lazy to figure out how to capture video.

    Every game should have an instant replay function.

  14. 28/07/2011 at 13:08 John P says:

    I took a screenshot of many pigeons in Deus Ex, and what happens when they run into a helicopter.

    http://i.imgur.com/qp8Cl.jpg
    http://i.imgur.com/kgRPi.jpg

    • 28/07/2011 at 13:16 LionsPhil says:

      Oh spawnmass, you provided hours of extra fun, helped no end by the game’s gloriously emergent environment. Got to make those ‘copter blades actually chop stuff, because what if JC tries to turn on his Legs and go for a piggy-back ride?

      Also fun: making it rain cats and dogs on top of security bots and watching the resulting goomba stomp damage start a fight.

      And if you want to enjoy a white screen for five minutes, spawning lots of boom crates in midair…

  15. 28/07/2011 at 13:09 nabeel says:

    I absolutely love taking screenshots. I am at work so I can’t see how big my collection is, but it only really started when I got a decent computer a few years back so it’s not too big yet. I take them of scenes in games that I find interesting or funny, but usually moments when I am just gobsmacked by the graphics. I have loads of Mass Effect scenes for example because every cutscene is so dramatic and cinematic. I don’t take them for the purpose of showing others though, I truly keep them as a personal collection for browsing through whenever I want to walk down memory lane. Consequently it’s a mess of aliased edges and varying resolutions and quality of graphical settings. I really like Deadendthrills.com, it’s a blog that explores the art of screenshots and there are some great shots there as well as tips on how to achieve the scenes captured.

  17. 28/07/2011 at 13:11 frenz0rz says:

    Aaah, my beloved Xfire screenshots folder. Some are great, some are utterly terrible. More importantly, though, having it means I can happily snap away and they never take up any space on my hard drive.

    http://www.xfire.com/profile/frenz0rz/screenshots/

    • 28/07/2011 at 13:54 Mad Hamish says:

      Hah those two guys in the front of the jeep. Worst under cover arabs ever. At least the guy manning the grenade launcher has a beard. Quality screenshot.

  19. 28/07/2011 at 13:12 Coins says:

    I don’t take screenshots during pretty or cool moments because I’m usually too busy looking at said scene and forget I need to press buttons. Most of my screenshots are for strategy/talking purposes.

  20. 28/07/2011 at 13:15 Sulkdodds says:

    I play WoW on a roleplay server. I screenshot every single exchange between my character and others so that I have a copy of the chatlog. So I don’t have any spectacular views, but I have a massive hoard of dialogue sequences which fit imperfectly together, with bits missing, which aren’t really seem as funny or impressive to someone who wasn’t there the first time around. As a method of archiving material or remembering important details, it’s absolutely rubbish, but it seems I can’t be bothered to actually keep a note file rather than compulsively stabbing ‘print screen’.

    • 28/07/2011 at 14:46 Jumwa says:

      You can get some mods for WoW that’ll log your chats much more conveniently than that.

      I used to use Elephant when I played, simple and just stuck to logging chats conveniently. Whereas other chat logging mods tend to add a bunch of other aspects as well.

  21. 28/07/2011 at 13:15 Raziel_Alex says:

    If you people can be bothered to download some image packs, I have some decent stuff here: http://raziel-axd.deviantart.com/gallery/25702233

  22. 28/07/2011 at 13:15 Driveshaft says:

    Yes! Steam’s screenshot feature has encouraged this behavour ten-fold. I particularly enjoyed taking dual-screen shots during my EVE ONLINE trial.

    Sometimes I worry that I’m ruining the intended atmosphere – I spent most of Portal 2 taking screenshots. I fear it’ll be the same story with HL2 episode 3.

    http://steamcommunity.com/id/Driveshaft/screenshots/

  23. 28/07/2011 at 13:19 inspirius says:

    I took a few thousand screenshots of World of Warcraft just over a year ago that I used to make into a photo mosaic of my friend’s character that I then printed and gave to him as a birthday present.

    I keep on thinking that I would like to get game artwork and/or screenshots printed out to hang up but it’s not easy finding high resolution images that are worth printing.

  24. 28/07/2011 at 13:20 CaspianRoach says:

    Here is my favorite Diablo 2 screenshot.
    I hope there won’t be spawns like this one in D3. That one took me 10 minutes of potion drinking and button mashing and I still have no idea how the hell did I damage him.

  25. 28/07/2011 at 13:22 Sam Crisp says:

    I only take screenshots when I can pause a game and turn off the hud with ease- the most recent example being Dragon Age 2. Even the games which do that are usually very limited in terms of positioning the camera, so it’s difficult to get something good.

    I love sites dedicated to game photography, particularly Dead End Thrills and this tumblr. Anyone know of other good sites? I’m always looking for more desktop wallpapers to add to the rotation.

    • 28/07/2011 at 15:17 enwandrews says:

      http://enwandrews.tumblr.com/
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/63974083@N06/

      The Dead Space games spoiled me. I don’t take any screens if the HUD’s visible, and it can take quite some time on google to discover how to remove it from others. If I could have one additional feature added to all games it would be a HUD toggle. It’s heartbreaking to see games advertised without the HUD and then ship with it permanently enabled.

      I really like this Duncan Harris quote from one of his Alice photos, http://deadendthrills.com/2011/06/dream-job/

      “I actually started enjoying Madness Returns a lot more when I realised you could just noclip through every map without fighting anyone, visiting every location and just dropping yourself off at the important trigger points. One day, maybe someone smarter than me will figure out what that experience is worth.”

    • 28/07/2011 at 16:22 Sam Crisp says:

      Not sure if you noticed that yours in fact was the tumblr I linked to in my comment. :P

      Are 1080p versions of any of your screenshots available? I’d love to use them as my wallpaper but the highest res I can find on Flickr is 1024×640.

    • 28/07/2011 at 17:38 enwandrews says:

      Hey yes thank you, I couldn’t believe my eyes, but I noticed :)

      I’ll have some wallpaper sizes up on flickr shortly.

    • 01/08/2011 at 23:39 enwandrews says:

      Looks like I’ll need a Flickr subscription in order to offer the original images through that service. I do have the original copies available on my steam profile though, which are 1440 x 900.

      http://steamcommunity.com/id/en/screenshots/

  26. 28/07/2011 at 13:23 Yargh says:

    Kerbal Space Program is the only recent game that has had me taking some screenshots.

    At work now so I can’t post any, but I’ll just say that watching the sun rise from low KEarth orbit is well worth working for.

  27. 28/07/2011 at 13:28 KillahMate says:

    I don’t take screenshots anymore since I’ve found Dead End Thrills. There’s no point. The man’s got it covered.

    • 29/07/2011 at 18:16 Emalord says:

      Never thoght it even for a moment.
      My friend Giacomo Talamini would never start http://www.mgs-philanthropy.net/” if he had to think to Stanley Kubrik or, to a lesser extent, Spielberg. Or even Bunuel.
      There are so many things DET does not make, there are so many self-set rules in which he trapped itself and make it so unique, that someway its work is so over-the-top I really can’t call them screenshots anymore.
      They are photos, they are a work of art, but if I were looking for screenshots that’s not my place. He works for EDGE and EDGE only once used a screenshot from DET for its reviews. Why? Because they are not ‘that’ kind of things.
      Concerning my blog http://www.electricblueskies.com, everytime it is compared to DET (as a lesser and less noble project, something not worth to exist) it’s so flattering for me and so unfair to DET that I really can’t understand how people can be sometimes so superficial.
      So, if you stopped taking screenshots because DET it’s better than you, you missed the point, in my opinion.

  28. 28/07/2011 at 13:30 Kollega says:

    I try to be a game photographer at times. Not that i succeed much, but some of the screenshots that i set up or snap in the middle of frantic action do look pretty nice. Or they’re screenshots of various glitches, which i think i have the most of.

  29. 28/07/2011 at 13:31 Mitchk says:

    Back in the day I used to spend hours on photo mode on GT4, saving my pics onto my USB drive. It got to the point where I’d actually stop racing and instead try to set the cars up for a good picture…all of that snappery carried over to PGR4, you could upload your photos to the net as well so that was even more incentive for me and my itchy camera finger!
    You wouldn’t have any of them up on your wall by any means, but I had fun with it and it broke up all the racing nicely. They were both good looking games for their time too!

    PGR Showcase

  30. 28/07/2011 at 13:32 westyfield says:

    I used to take a lot of screenshots when playing Project Reality and BF2142. I also took loads in Mass Effect 1 and 2, here’s one of my favourites from ME2.
    http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/93499703-4.jpg
    It’s the “I have had a fucking awful day and I am ready to punch someone” expression that does it.

  31. 28/07/2011 at 13:33 Edawan says:

    My screenshot collection is heavily dominated by WoW, but my favourite screenshot ever is from KotOR.

    I’ve also made panoramas in WoW, though not many lately due to a lack of a good panorama making software.

  32. 28/07/2011 at 13:33 McDan says:

    I haven’t really taken many screenshots apart from when I’ve been aiming to for things, but I wish I had now, as there have been moments that I should have recorded because they were so good. But I suppose it’d be more useful to have a pictures of things, so yeah, wish I’d got into the habit of taking them years ago. That EVE gallery is really good, explosions!

  33. 28/07/2011 at 13:34 Inigo says:

    I very rarely take screenshots. When I do, it’s usually when things go wrong.

  34. 28/07/2011 at 13:38 LTK says:

    At almost every turn in the Witcher 2 I was staring in awe at the scenery, objects, apparel, damn near everything. I was playing it outside of Steam so screenshots weren’t easy to take, but I did set a shortcut one time in order to show how ridiculously detailed the clothing is. Just look at this jacket:

    http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20662983/2011-06-12_00001.jpg

    It looks so good! I wish I had clothes that are this well-crafted hanging in my closet.

    I also like taking screenshots of Minecraft landscapes.

    http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii134/LaurensK90/2011-07-10_205841.jpg
    http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii134/LaurensK90/2011-07-07_205653.jpg

  35. 28/07/2011 at 13:41 warthog2k says:

    Didn’t think so, then remembered the WoW ‘Scenic’ Gallery I put together a while back. Some lovely pics in there. https://picasaweb.google.com/warthog2k/WoWScenicShots#

  38. 28/07/2011 at 13:54 angramainyu says:

    I spend a fair bit of time doing art photography (mostly studio nudes… it’s a rough job, I know), and find it hard to do good screenshots — I always want to position the subject or the lights differently, or move the camera around more freely like I can in the studio :)
    So, I usually go for the comedy take in my screengrabs, or just reminders of something cool:
    http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/577793916136500844/57E93CE84EBC2CED1579E087F019600505612239/
    http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/577794895755040072/127605B5C5DC47BCC05D8214C04D46DA770558A7/

  39. 28/07/2011 at 13:56 Barts says:

    F**k yea I am.

    My Dragon Age: Origin got documented so thoroughly that this folder alone rose to the size of one gig. The beauty of this game, the dialogues, the story of my playthrough were so captivatiing that I actually browse this folder from time to time. Ah, Winterfang with werewolves, these were the good times…

  40. 28/07/2011 at 14:00 Leelad says:

    I shortcutted every non steam game I have to make use of the screenshot/upload function.

    Wonderful thing it is too especially when you accidentally cap something really awesome looking.

  41. 28/07/2011 at 14:00 fallingmagpie says:

    I don’t know how to take screenshots. Do you just hit PrtScrn, then pause, alt-tab out and paste it into an image editor? Or is there something you can have running in the background which lets you hammer away and take lots of photos?

    • 28/07/2011 at 14:03 PeteC says:

      If it’s a Steam game simply press F12. It’ll save them to your screenshots folder in your profile.

    • 28/07/2011 at 14:27 Kablooie says:

      Can’t agree on the “lameness” using PrtScr and an image editor (I’d substitute “laziness”). I personally don’t like software (like FRAPS) and other shareware or begware. I prefer to paste screenies into GIMP and then edit them to taste. Steam games too, although I’ll use their shortcut and then edit the results.

      In general I only do screenies if I want wallpaper from the game, and I like to do my own custom logos for them, that’s about the limit of editing I do (aside from touchup and other things). I got a bunch of Bioshock (1 and 2) pics, as well as Fallout3, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Mass Effect, Metro2033, and Neverwinter Nights 2.

  42. 28/07/2011 at 14:04 PeteC says:

    I’ve only just started taking screenshots this past week (since starting Just cause 2) so only have a handful. A few are of the rather lovely scenery but others are of various glitches like this one.
    http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/558663568015630208/731A445C66A2292A88A4F125C7137158862B4C7C/

  43. 28/07/2011 at 14:05 Forceflow says:

    Steam’s easy screenshot function sure made me do this more.

    Played some Resident Evil 5 today, it has such clever rendering.
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/forceflow/screenshot/559788195664513794

    When it comes to atmospheric shots, STALKER with complete mods (Pripyat here) is hard to beat:
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/forceflow/screenshot/560913328419090201
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/forceflow/screenshot/560913328371087085/?
    Argh, will you look at that sky. http://steamcommunity.com/id/forceflow/screenshot/558659404373182245/?

    Mafia 2 also showing what top-notch texturing and some good lighting can do:
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/forceflow/screenshot/560902699787649372/?

  44. 28/07/2011 at 14:07 Mike says:

    My intention with The Runner was to paint a portait of the game through the screenshots.
    We also ran a week of screenshot galleries at The Blue Casket before it closed.

    EDIT – Favourite of mine: http://sekritforum.com/storybook/mirror/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/152-1024×496.png

  45. 28/07/2011 at 14:15 Wulf says:

    I’m very much a game photographer because it’s a fun thing to do. I have a large collection of screenshots of fun things from games, and things where I’ve broken games terribly and wanted to record the moment for posterity. Those latter ones can be very fun to show other people.

  46. 28/07/2011 at 14:15 InternetBatman says:

    I sometimes take screenshots in open world games, but my absolute favorite game for screenshots was WoW. My particular favorite was the sun coming up in Ashenvale as I was running to the Zoram’gar strand.

  47. 28/07/2011 at 14:27 birdsigh says:

    I’ve never stopped much to take screenshots before until recently. After I carried Mr. Gnome all the way through HL:Ep2 I took a few screenshots along the way, since the recent addition of saving screenshots to cloud in Steam I’ve been starting to take a few more shots.

    Loving everyone’s photos/screenshots!

    Here are a few from my journey with Mr. Gnome

  48. 28/07/2011 at 14:34 Darko Drako says:

    It is possible to get some great screenshots in the Total War series, I don’t know where I have kept mine, but hopefully someone can post some up.

  51. 28/07/2011 at 14:47 Magnetude says:

    No staring eyes tag?

  54. 28/07/2011 at 15:13 tungstenHead says:

    I’m not nearly as much of a game photographer as might ought to be. I should rebind some keys in FRAPS, I guess and take record of what I’m up to more. Regardless of whether I’m a shutterbug or not, I like this story:

    I was reading the Planetside forums several years ago and I remember this fellow relating the story of one of the guys in his outfit. Every time this guy tried to fire his gun, his screen froze for a second. The guy loved Planetside though, and he liked playing with his outfit, so he ended up doing a lot of support stuff like flying a Galaxy dropship and whatnot because with that one second screen freeze whenever he tried to shoot, he just could not gunfight.

    So, one day, the fellow who was relating this story said, “Look man, we’re gonna get you fixed up. We’re going to figure this out.” So they go through his computer setup, his graphics settings, his sound settings, and on and on. They start going through the keybindings and they eventually come across the culprit. The guy had somehow ended up binding his screenshot key to his left mouse button and every time he tried to shoot his weapon, he fired his gun but he also took a screenshot.

    They uploaded the archive. It was something in the realm of 3GB and it cataloged every single time this guy shot at something. I wish I’d downloaded it, but back then 3GB was a pretty big download on the bandwidth I had available and I’m not quite so tenacious to try and find it now. But that’s my favourite screenshot story.

    • 28/07/2011 at 15:55 Calabi says:

      Exactly the same happened to me, but it was with Trackmania Forever. Certain times when I turned the corner the framerate would stutter. I tried everything to sort it out, until a few weeks later I realised I’d set the screenshot button to the switch in the analogue controller.

    • 28/07/2011 at 17:28 Cunzy1 1 says:

      Oh man. That is brilliant.

  55. 28/07/2011 at 15:21 sinbad269 says:

    When I had a PS2, and Gran Turismo 4, I would take photo’s of various car’s. The best are here – http://sinbad269.deviantart.com/gallery/6428006

    It was actually quite powerful, in the fact that it had an expert or advanced mode, that had real-world photography settings [f.Stop, Shutter, Filter's, ISO, etc]

    I loved the Photo mode in GT4, pretty much the reason I played the game really.

  57. 28/07/2011 at 15:28 Scatterbrainpaul says:

    This is a screenshot i took in Stalker

    http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i99/Paulgood30/ss_paul_11-01-07_12-07-27_l07_milit.jpg

    I got stuck in a building and endless amount of enemy’s would keep on re-appearing around the corner (think it was a bug), The grey dots in the mini map show the amount of stalkers i had to kill to get out

  58. 28/07/2011 at 15:31 sonofsanta says:

    Oh yes, altogether too much. Got some really nice ones from my last STALKER SoC playthrough, and spent an inordinate amount of time when warping between gates in EVE spinning the camera round to line up against gates and galaxies.

    None to hand, mind, but then I suspect I don’t have any that special. I don’t particularly go out of my way, but when I come across something beautiful looking (e.g. sunset from the rail bridge at the start of SoC) I’ll spent a bit of time lining a shot up.

    Steam makes it easy, as does RadeonPRO if you’re an ATi owner.

    Also, Dead End Thrills is, quite clearly, the most beautiful website I’ve seen this year. Tah very much!

  59. 28/07/2011 at 15:32 Cooper says:

    Nope, never.

    Until, after an RPS post on it, I started playing Just Cause 2 (which I have had on Steam for ages but not got around to)

    And. Wow. There’s something about those sunsets…

    Thing is, screenshots don’t do justice to the beauty of careering around steep mountain roads on a motorbiks as the sun sets over the top of them…

  60. 28/07/2011 at 15:43 solr says:

    I sure am.

    Edit: Made my recent Half-Life 2 gallery public.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/chepitocures/sets/72157626561307790/

  61. 28/07/2011 at 15:44 DrGonzo says:

    I doubt anyone will get this far, but here is a screenshot I took of Portal 2. I’ve been trying to make nice desktop wallpapers but without any photoshop or anything.

    http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970430308/screenshot/560913328422635495?tab=public

    I think it’s rather nice, though I could do with going back to it at 1080p.

  62. 28/07/2011 at 15:46 richardwhitelock says:

    Love this topic.

    I’m often told this old photography series I produced, resembles a videogame world.

    http://www.brfuk.com/lanternslides/

  63. 28/07/2011 at 15:53 Seyon says:

    Here is our G3 gallery of a couple dozen games worth of screenshots.
    http://thegeekescape.com/gallery3/index.php/gamess
    We quite like taking screenshots.

  65. 28/07/2011 at 16:00 MonkeesLover1963 says:

    This screen shot illustrates our endless greed. Also Nevada Skies and Electrocity in NV.
    http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/595805138280704507/F3B33EE3B43C0CF009B8E21DC6F6E1FCC50A8826/
    I camped here for whole minutes but when I saw this shot I knew it was worth it.
    http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/596931496823041325/C2D3C669A4658A4A85BED028135089B946043BE9/
    This one distracted me from the pack of dogs you see. I died.
    http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/596931496823044254/8FA8EAB88A80A9224C249527D22E8BCAC1702D33/

  67. 28/07/2011 at 16:29 hardboiledgregg says:

    I love getting screenshots and clips but I’m no good with capture programs and the like.

    It’s why I love Theatre Mode in Halo 3 and Reach so much (boo, hiss, console!) because it’s so simple to use and lets you view the whole thing at your own pace. I must have hundreds of screenshots from both games, either from memorable multiplayer moments or shots I thought just looked great in terms of angle, lighting, etc.
    I remember one time must have spent an hour recording a clip of me from one game, where I killed 7-8 opponents in the space of a minute and a half while covering about half the map, all because I wanted to do it in the free camera mode. It was an odd thing, almost as if rehearsing a scene but instead it was the cameras having to practise rather than the ‘actors’. It was worth it though, as I’m incredibly pleased with the result.

    Carmageddon was the first place I saw such a feature, so I’m still wondering how, 14 years later, it’s not in more games. It is a must!

  68. 28/07/2011 at 16:40 harvb says:

    God, I’ve got about 100 Squigs of gaming shots, I just collect them like mad. I’m such a gaming tourist. I barely ever look through them though.

    I tend to take landscapes or portraits rather than character shots.

  69. 28/07/2011 at 16:59 Cunzy1 1 says:

    I wish more console games would let you take screenshots. Mind you this is what happen when they do.

    http://www.thatguys.co.uk/2010/08/whos-worse.html

  70. 28/07/2011 at 17:04 Man Raised by Puffins says:

    In general I’m not much of a game photographer unless there is an in-game screenshot key, in which case I become an habitual hoarder of in-game snapshots (TF2 death-cam grabs are now edging on 2GB). As such, the Steam screenshot-majig dovetails quite nicely with my lazy capturing habits.

    I’m quite fond of this ‘un, a pleasant memento of the brutal defence of Caen (wherein dodgy pathfinding, CPU limitations and maybe a modicum of not entirely braindead generalship conspired to deliver victory to perhaps the most unholy scratch defence force ever committed to battle):
    http://i.imgur.com/er0q7.jpg

    Irony, thy name is TheCastrator:
    http://i.imgur.com/v5UAI.jpg

  71. 28/07/2011 at 17:22 Fumarole says:

    My first post seems to have been eaten, so here’s a recap.

    A gallery from 2007-2009.

    Select screenies:

    Left 4 Dead
    Fallout 2
    Dawn of War 2 – we lost this game by the score of 0-1
    Max Payne
    Sins of a Solar Empire
    Baldur’s Gate – absolutely gorgeous backgrounds at 1920×1200 resolution
    Far Cry 2

  72. 28/07/2011 at 17:33 Hypnotoad says:

    I take photos of everything thanks to steam, and I can remember the exact game and what happened.

    Like looking back through an old photo album of a holiday I can remember the events and humour.

    However, I find GIF’s a more appropriate format for capturing game hilarity. as often a screen shot just doesn’t cut it.

    http://filesmelt.com/dl/this.gif

    http://filesmelt.com/dl/Whee.gif

  73. 28/07/2011 at 17:37 Teddy Leach says:

    I never take screenshots unless I’m going to write about the game, but I am a photographer.

  75. 28/07/2011 at 18:23 EOT says:

    I’ve only recently started taking them again, mostly in Shadow of Chernobyl. I used to take hundreds when playing Morrowind in my mid teens though.

    Here’s my SoC ones: http://steamcommunity.com/id/blastvader/screenshots/?tab=public&showdate=1&filter=app_4500

  76. 28/07/2011 at 18:29 armyofdan says:

    I take lots of screenshots after I die and am stuck in spectator mode. Also I document my battles in the Total War Series. I used to make videos of me and my buddies messing around in GTA4, like this one.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9zWIjCaf74

  77. 28/07/2011 at 19:23 Davie says:

    Oh my, I reflexively pound the screenshot key all the time. I’m sure I have a few gigs of screenshots on my computer, and about 80% of them are from Dawn of War. Thanks to the horribly intrusive interface though, DoW makes for terrible screenshots, so I unearthed my ancient Photobucket account to display a few good ones from games I’ve been playing recently.

    http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff302/Yokai44/?start=all

  79. 28/07/2011 at 19:45 GamerFail says:

    A Great Article here i must say, usually i just browse through these articles not even commenting. Yet this one sparked something in me because I too come from the not-so-similar spot (kind of) Gamers; should take screenshots of what they want to take in-game(in my honest opinion) whether it be hilarious, epic, or down right cool. They have the power to take screenshots (at least i do in-game :D) thx to steam.

    What i do is try to create some meaningful shots, symbolism, center of a lessson, themes, funniness, gross, gory, unexpected, artwork pictures, and etc etc.

    Here are some of my best shots,

    Portal Look-alike Cake :D
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/GamerFail/screenshot/576665918955557945?tab=public&filter=app_43110

    The Dark-Side
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/GamerFail/screenshot/576666546911897963?tab=public&filter=app_43110

    Gollum?
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/GamerFail/screenshot/578923518484308174?tab=public&filter=shortcut_5875

  80. 28/07/2011 at 19:46 tstapp1026 says:

    I love you for bringing this up. (skip the puns folks, I’ve already hit myself with them…twice)

    The whole screenshot thing isn’t my gig but a fella I met online and played games with has become one of my very bestest buds, in the world! You see, the “in the world” bit is important too… because I live in the U.S. (sorry) and he lives in New Zealand (Go All Blacks!).

    He documents everything in the way of in game photgraphy. It literally creates a new way to play the game. “Hmmm… Let’s find the most awesome environments and shoot them.” This also puts him miles ahead of me in both achievements and money (WoW, Guild Wars) due to all the experiences he has getting to said spots… elitist assbag >.< (j/k Steakout… you my homie)

  81. 28/07/2011 at 19:51 Sinomatic says:

    I’m not sure I can play anything now without wanting to screenshot things, be it to capture the atmosphere/mood/scenery or simply to capture some amusing or weird detail.

  82. 28/07/2011 at 20:00 Undermind_Mike says:

    I have a TON of what I consider to be beautiful Oblivion and X3 shots, but it’s like photography; how much credit do you give to the photographer, and how much is just that the subject is beautiful?

    The best screenshots tell a funny story (or a badass story, or preferably both)

    http://undermind.co.uk/misc/Mike/screenshots/GTASA4.jpg

    or are something the player has had a hand in composing him/herself

    http://undermind.co.uk/misc/Mike/screenshots/Gnomy.jpg

    When I was into Supreme Commander I enjoyed taking interesting and illustrative screens of the units for the Wiki

    http://undermind.co.uk/misc/Mike/screenshots/rhino_insitu_1.jpg

    Also inspired by the paintings in the game, I took a few of my nicest Oblivion screenshots and used a photoshop paint filter to make a few fake Rythe Lathandas paintings :)

    http://undermind.co.uk/misc/Mike/screenshots/bleakersway-rythe.jpg

  83. 28/07/2011 at 20:09 Alikchi says:

    I have a post with a bunch of screenshots on the old forum: http://rockpapershotgun.com/rpsforum/topic.php?id=4245&page=2#post-166208

    That’s Minecraft, ARMA 2, EVE, EUIII, Portal 2, SoW: Gettysburg, DEFCON, and Garry’s Mod.

  84. 28/07/2011 at 21:21 Eukatheude says:

    I used to be a compulsive photographer. Every detail, every even slightly interesting thing was saved to my fraps folder. Open world RPGs were the worst: i used to screencap landscapes, conversations, NPCs, weapons, bugs, glitches, whatever caught my attention. I think i might have accumulated several GB of screenshots only from Elder Scrolls games.
    However, it’s been a while since i stopped screenshotting at all. Don’t really know why, i guess i thought it was just occupying space on my hard drive without any purpose, though i recall going through all the screencaps from time to time, and really enjoying doing so. It brought back so many memories from good games i hadn’t played for a long time.

    Ah, screw it, i’ll start photographing again.

  85. 28/07/2011 at 22:03 Mman says:

    I don’t do it for retail games (as I can place them pretty easily), but I do it for mods; I’ve played hundreds over the years for several games, and sometimes I remember parts from old ones but have no idea where it comes from. A couple of years ago I decided start taking shots of everything in mods I play so I have a list of what I’ve played and what’s in it. Plus it helps for mapping too as I have a ton of reference shots for whatever game I’m working with.

  87. 28/07/2011 at 22:22 Ninja Dodo says:

    I captured some screens of Vampire Bloodlines and Gothic 1 a while back:
    http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/ninjadodo/my-screens/52-558276/

    [note to RPS: 2nd time I'm unable to comment - last one (for the books as games thread) got posted but not shown in the thread, this one permanently stuck in moderation - I guess I'll stop commenting then.]

  89. 28/07/2011 at 22:37 Barman1942 says:

    I’m a screenshot junkie, but this one is probably my favorite so far. It encapsulates Darkest Hour perfectly, imho.

    http://i.imgur.com/5Dp77.jpg

  90. 28/07/2011 at 22:51 Dirtyboy says:

    I take tons of screenshots. Mostly use Fraps, but starting to use Steam more and more.

    http://steamcommunity.com/id/dirtyboyxl/screenshots/

  91. 29/07/2011 at 00:32 phenom_x8 says:

    my game photography hobbies started when GTA San Andreas arrived, it has its own tele camera to begin with (I’d love to take a picture of people reaction when we do something nasty at them)!
    My latest pictures was from The Witcher 2 using FRAPS. I take a shot when Foltest killed, when triss naked (man, what a pervert I am), and when some other cool moments happens and then use it as a theme and wallpaper.
    I have a lots of other picture too, sadly,none of them online!
    And Jim, try to reduce the size of your collection by resize them or convert them into another format (NMP to JPG didnt give too much quality differences ) rather than delete it. Using Irfanview to do some batch process will help you through this!

  92. 29/07/2011 at 00:42 dsi1 says:

    There is my Steam gallery of course: http://steamcommunity.com/id/dsi1/screenshots/

    I’m taking a lot of screenshots lately thanks to Dextory’s “Rapid Fire” screenshot mode, every single frame is saved as a screenshot for as many frames as you desire, simply amazing. (and is unlimited in the trial version!)

  94. 29/07/2011 at 10:19 Daedalus29 says:

    That’s a fortunate coincidence, I’ve created some months ago a minisite/blog wich is similar to Deadendthrills. But instead of it we let the players submits their own screen, with each week a different thema . We choose the most aesthetics ones and post it.
    For example, the last thema was non restrictive:
    http://blogs.wefrag.com/framesoup/2011/07/18/14-le-theme-sans-nom/
    Feel free to submit your screens, we try to extend ours submissions from other countries than france and belgium.
    Dont mind about the french langage, email us and we’ll check it out.
    If RPS is interested, you can pick up our submissions if you add the name of the photographer.

  95. 29/07/2011 at 10:48 Emalord says:

    Hi there, one of my followers linked me to this article. I was actually inspired by Mr. Duncan’s work when I started my blog Electric Blue Skies. While Mr. Harris is PC oriented and set ist own rules (no aliased stuff) I am more console-retrogaming oriented, and I don’t dislike aliasing if that was in the nature of the game. My crown jewels are Shadow of The Colossus (@1080p) Uncharted 2 and Halo: Reach portfolios, which I expanded with some deviant stuff like the Postcards from Reach. I recently bought a capture device, so from now on I’ll be able to grab also some new-released stuff, like FROM DUST.
    Link: http://www.electricblueskies.com

    EDIT:

    For the laziest of you guys, here my 5 best pics so far (in my opinion) in the first 8 months of EBS

    Wipeout HD – Sol 2
    http://www.electricblueskies.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/wipeout-sol2-01.jpg

    Chloe Frazer’s Weapons of Mass Distraction:
    http://www.electricblueskies.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Uncharted-2-Chloe-Frazer.jpg

    Uncharted 2 Lost City
    http://www.electricblueskies.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Uncharted-2-1080p-The-Lost-City-15.jpg

    Halo: Reach Nightfall Chapter
    http://www.electricblueskies.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-Chronicles-of-Reach-4-Nightfall-13.jpg

    GT5 – Volkswagen Typ 2
    http://www.electricblueskies.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Top-Gear-Test-EDIT.jpg

  96. 29/07/2011 at 18:19 rig says:

    I have 40 gigs of screenshots in my Ugly Shepard folder. I really need to continue that series. :(

  98. 30/07/2011 at 20:32 inamemo says:

    This inspired me to make me own little photography minisite, shitty though it may be.

    http://inamemo.wordpress.com/

  99. 31/07/2011 at 00:45 somedude says:

    Apparently I have a little over 3GB of screenshots and 3GB of video spanning the past couple of years. I’m pretty sure there are some nice shots in there somewhere, it’s more a problem of digging them out… I must have thousands of screens of JC2 alone. I’m a nature/macro/landscape photographer IRL, so I suppose the impulse naturally carries over to games, although you often have to work a bit more to get a creative shot. Most of my shots are in fraps, though, and haven’t really uploaded them anywhere, although I think I’ll have more online now that I’m getting into Steam’s screenshot functionality (which interestingly seems to work more reliably than fraps atm).

Comment on this story

XHTML: Allowed code: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Respond to our gibber

Read our finest words

Hello Games Announces Joe Danger For PC

Search for clues

Play indie, mods, demos

Browse the archive