Revealed: These Are The Decade's Most Popular Games For Virtual Photography
With travel and gatherings forbidden at the moment, photography is a tricky hobby to keep up.
Luckily, there’s a new wave of experimental approaches to photography which completely avoid the need for social interaction or travel.
One of the most popular avant-garde approaches at the moment is Virtual Photography.
Also known as ‘ingame photography’, Virtual Photography is trending worldwide with over 1 million posts on Instagram labeled with #virtualphotography.
It involves taking either serendipitous or carefully planned video-game screenshots in the same way a traditional photographer looks for the perfect shot. That might mean scouring the menacing streets of Gotham (Batman), or the hidden cottages of Tamriel (Skyrim), or the war-torn Tilted Towers (Fortnite) for the perfect screenie.
Often, this will take place within the game's photo mode, such as Nvidia Ansel, but that's not always the case.
So, what game are you most likely to find the perfect screenie to add to your unconventional covid portfolio?
To find out, the team at ShotKit.com measured the Instagram presence of the 100 most popular games from the last decade, to discover which are the most popular for virtual photography [1].
Here are the results:
1. Red Dead Redemption 2
Taking the number one spot is Red Dead Redemption 2 by Rockstar Games, released in October 2018. RDR 2’s historic Wild West landscapes, teeming wildlife and protagonist Arthur Morgan have made an impressive mark on the photography community -- attracting 165,000 photography posts since its release.
Consoles: PS4, XBox One, Google Stadia, PC
2. GTA 5
Second on our list is Grand Theft Auto 5, another Rockstar Games title. GTA raked in a total of 146,495 photography posts. No surprises there! Like Red Dead, the complete freedom GTA gives players makes it the perfect playground for keen but restricted photographers.
Not got access to props like golden beaches, gorgeous sunsets, bugattis, tanks, jet fighters or lamborghinis? Never fear, Los Santos has you covered.
Consoles: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, XBox 1, PC
3. Fortnite
Fortnite comes third place with an impressive 135,007 photography posts. Fortnite is not just the world’s favourite Battle Royale. The game also offers a treasure trove of completely unrealistic but stunning photo ops such as the game’s range of colourful character skins and unusual architecture.
Consoles: PS4, XBox 1, Nintendo Switch, PC
4. Skyrim
Despite being one of the oldest games on the list, Skyrim from the Elder Scrolls franchise takes a proud fourth spot, with 46,208 photography posts since its release on the 11th of November 2011. The game’s humongous open world, consisting of eerie dark forests, even eerier caves, beautiful greenery surrounding vast mountains and icy glaciers is likely to attract environmental photographers everywhere.
Consoles: XBox 360, XBox One, PS3, PS5, nintendo switch
5. Horizon Zero Dawn
In fifth place is Horizon Zero Dawn. There are a couple of reasons why this post-apocalyptic game is so befitting for virtual photography. First is the stunning detail given to protagonist Aloy. Second is the excitement that comes with trying to take the perfect photo: in Horizon Zero Dawn there’s always an underlying sense of danger as you sneak around this wild robot infested world. Finding the perfect shot is always accompanied with a shot of adrenaline.
Consoles: PS4, PC, XBox One
6. Forza Horizon 4
Sixth is Forza Horizon 4, part of XBox’s exclusive Forza series, which mopped up 33,144 posts. The developers of this series have always created fire looking games and Horizon 4 is no exception. As you can see below, even the older looking cars in this game are just as aesthetic as the surrounding landscapes.
Console: XBox One
7. Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima takes seventh place with 16,930 posts since its recent release on the 17th of July 2020. Not bad at all! Your character, an ancient Samurai warrior, has a mystical presence which makes for some mesmerizing third-person shots on the Southeast Asian archipelago island Tsushima.
Console: Playstation 4
8. The Last of Us Part 2
In eighth place is The Last of Us 2 -- which was only just released in June 2020 -- making it the second most recent release on our list, behind Ghost of Tsushima. The game has already racked up a considerable 9,912 posts. Like many up and coming games, Last of Us 2 has a comprehensive photo mode with lots of settings to match the emotional depth of the game.
9. Uncharted 4
4,918 posts were given to Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, taking it to ninth place. Uncharted 4 has a photo mode which allows you to pause the game and tinker around with depth of field, motion blur, film grain and a variety of filters, making it a popular game for virtual photographers.
Console: PS4
10. The Sims 4
The Sims 4 is a game you wouldn’t expect to see side-by-side with Ghost of Tsushima and Skyrim. Yet, the game still made it onto the list with 5,339 photography posts. Unlike other contenders on our list, The Sims isn’t the most stunning game in the world but it is certainly one of the most accessible, with an easy-to-use photo mode that allows you to take model pictures of your ‘Sim’ in all kinds of strange outfits and weird situations.
Consoles: XBox One, PS4, PC
What Makes The Perfect Game For Virtual Photography?
To find out a little bit more about what makes these games so approachable to Virtual photography, we also asked the professional virtual photographer Leo Sang, who is partnered with graphics card creator NVIDIA: ‘what makes a game perfect for Virtual Photography?’.
He said: “A familiar and easy to use photo mode is less intimidating if you are getting used to virtual photography, the basic camera controls and settings should have easy access and be intuitive.
NVIDIA Ansel, which is used by games like Dishonoured and Watch Dogs 2, for example, shares the same interface with all games from it's catalogue, making it easier than having to learn a new interface from new photo modes.”
And added that: “the camera's movement can't be too restricted, the wider the movement range, the easier it is to compose your shot. And the same applies to the other settings, field of view, roll Angles, depth of focus, etcetera... being able to fine tune your shot helps you experiment and create a lot easier.”
But Leo also suggested that sheer high quality graphics isn’t everything, saying that “an element of fun is always important, especially if you’re trying to do this professionally. If the game is fun, your motivation to find great shots increases as you kind of want to do the character justice. It’s probably this element of fun which explains why games like The Sims and GTA 5 made it onto the list.”
Methodology
Footnotes:
- To calculate the popularity of a game for virtual photography, we counted the number of photo posts on the top performing photography hashtag for each game. There were 2 main hashtag variations which pulled the most relevant results: #{videogame}photography and #{videogame}photomode
- We counted posts for the top 100 most popular video games in the last 10 years according to Gamezo.co.uk
- Red Dead Redemption 1 was excluded from the study because #reddeadredemptionphotography included photos of RDR 2 as well, making it an unfair estimation of RDR 1’s popularity.