The Shroud Snapshot

Hello Eorzeans! We’re here with yet another installment of our photo-taking discoveries within the world of Hydaelyn, but this time, the topic has some barred entry. Unfortunately, this guide will not be usable to adventurers who play on PlayStation 4, as the tool involved is for PC (or Mac) only. For those who play on computers, I encourage you to keep reading!

You may have seen the term thrown around if you peer into the XIV sub-communities that exist around the web: ReShade. It’s a popular add-on that works with several games to enhance graphics via filter presets, predominantly used by game photographers to achieve some amazing effects. Thankfully, it is also really easy to install, but I won’t be going into how to get it and how to find presets — only an introduction into how it may be used.

HOWEVER! I will give you the link to learn more about how to get ReShade and how to install presets, which has been covered here.

Before I get to the fine details of how ReShade can enhance your photos dramatically with simple, subtle changes, I do want to take a moment to assure you all that using this won’t violate the Terms of Service, as it isn’t classified as a “mod.” While ReShade can impact your gameplay, due to its nature of being a post-processing plug-in that will eat your computer’s processing power (Read: Don’t have it running unless you intend to take pictures, or toggle it to Performance Mode within the settings. Any other time, turn the plug-in off.), the FFXIV community has addressed the plug-in in the past.

Utilizing such a tool would not violate any agreements customers have with Square Enix, and we don’t plan on doing anything to restrict users from accessing it.

However, we advise that players use this at their own risk. Square Enix does not regulate the content of the aforementioned add-on and will not be responsible for any damage or losses resulting from its use. — Hvinire

It is at your own risk to use it, but I can personally attest to never running into performance issues that weren’t borne of an internal (as in within ReShade’s files) issue as it is, so it’s more than safe if your computer can handle the extra burden.

Once you have ReShade installed and you have some presets you like installed, feel free to go to the field! For my examples, I decided to primarily stay within the area I named this blog for: The Black Shroud. I didn’t use intense shifts and filters, mostly as this was my first time using the presets I picked out, so they are only the tip of the iceberg in regards to what you can do. Below, however, I have it set to where the original images (without ReShade) are on the left, while the ones with ReShade are on the right.

These were done with miiolk’s Angelite preset after a bit of toggling to warm the colors & increase the overall contrast of the image. You may recall in the past that I said that Group Pose’s Depth of Field setting is incredibly limited, but with ReShade filters it begins to act more like an actual camera lens, filtering both fore- and background, as demonstrated in the second set of images.

These, on the other hand, are enhanced via Espressolala’s adjustments to the above preset, creating the Shadownite and Darknite presets that are designed to handle dark lighting better. Because I wanted to keep the dark lighting for dramatic effect, the changes only seem minimal (especially so in the second set) and focus on color enhancement above all else.

Lastly, however, I leave you with a preset I’m incredibly fond of using in Performance Mode. While the focus of the No More Washed Out Colors preset is to enhance the colors within the world of XIV to where they seem more vibrant and full of life, it’s a great, subtle adjustment to photos that really helps them pop! The best part of this preset, in fact, is how well it runs in Performance Mode, which means you can play the rest of the game having it toggled on without it eating your computer’s processing speeds!

These are just three of the many, many preset options that are out there to find and test out, though. Feel free to experiment, play around, explore, and just keep taking pictures, adventurer! You have all the tools you’ll need now to start taking amazing photos, but fear not! This isn’t the last you’ll hear from me, as I’ll keep sharing my photo-taking progress and share any treasures I may find.

Until next time, Eorzeans! And may you ever walk in the light of the crystal.

Greetings, Eorzeans! Today’s a stranger sort of update, since today’s tutorial isn’t really a tutorial. Instead, I’ve compiled a video of how I set my screenshots up, taking you guys from start to finish of my photo process in augmented time (since watching me fiddle with filters is only amusing for so long)! While this means there are no fetch quests or instructions to muddle your way through, I hope you find this glimpse into how I do things somewhat informative, or that you may find some inspiration for your own screenshots in the future to come!

Quest Completed!

Up Next: Time to Throw Some ReShade!

In the next post, I’ll be finally introducing you guys to the wonderful world of ReShade, showing just how dramatic a change a simple add-on can make to your screenshot (and general visual) experience.

And, of course, I will also leave you with what I think are the best photos I took during the solo run of Snowcloak I used to make the video, just in case you want a better look at the images above (and a few extras that didn’t quite make it in there).

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Hello Eorzeans! I trust you’ve been practicing with that handy “camera” of yours since our last installation of Shroud Snapshot, and getting accustomed to the GPose settings available within the game. In today’s tutorial, we’ll be taking a step back from the technical menus and controllers and taking some notes from photography as a whole to give you even more tools that will help you on your way to becoming a skilled photographer (even if its only in-game).

While these concepts and principles are helpful, they are by no means set in stone — a good photograph may possess only one or even none of the following. Rather, we’re gonna use them as suggestions that you’re free to use or ignore. Think of them as additional tools in your work bench, available to you whenever you need an idea to help solidify that perfect picture.

Composition

You are already very familiar with composition, even if you aren’t aware of it. Composition refers to the arrangement of elements in an image, or in layman’s terms: how something looks. The Rule of Thirds is one way to create an interesting composition, but it isn’t the only way. In fact, there are a near infinite possible number of compositions , but in the world of photography, the number of these that viewers find visually appealing is reduced considerably. For our purposes, we’ll be looking at a few prominent types: minimalist, centered (and symmetrical), as well as diagonals.

Note: These aren’t really official composition types, rather than explorations of the different concepts that make up artistic composition (or can define a composition), so think of them more as means of describing works you come across or make yourself.

Minimalist composition prides itself on simplicity — it isn’t complicated or cluttered. Most commonly, you’ll find it in landscape photography, but its principles are often favored in portrait and action photography as well. By keeping the image simple, it’s easier to gleam the narrative of the picture and appreciate its aesthetic beauty.

Symmetrical composition, however, focuses on the idea of balance. To be specific, it focuses on if the image is balanced or not. Think of a seesaw. If you place two identical objects on both sides, it will sit at rest. If you remove one of the objects, the weight veers to the side the object is on. Images are somewhat similar, except instead of objects, it deals with focal points that draw our eyes to them.

Commonly, when an image is centered or symmetrical, it appears more stable and calm to us. Asymmetry, on the other hand, generates interest towards the side or section with more visual weight. Both have their place to be used, depending on the feeling you wish to evoke through your photos.

We can easily see both minimalism and symmetrical balance in this photo. There’s not much to detract our attention from the focal point of my character, and he’s positioned in the center of the image, leaving both sides balanced with equal amounts of visual weight from the background assets.

Lastly,  we come to compositions built around diagonals and triangles. Did you know we often see the world in triangles? Well, not really, but we often group items we see by 3’s, which make triangles really powerful ways of arranging the elements in your photographs. And by the nature of the triangle, we inevitably achieve diagonal lines, which suggest movement and keep us engaged with the image. Consider action shots or group portraits, and you’ll quickly begin to notice the invisible triangles that have been holding your focus for so long.

Rule of Thirds

If you’ve taken an art class before, the Rule of Thirds may be a familiar concept. If you haven’t, don’t worry! It’s really easy and only requires a bit of training your eye to recognize it in use, and in turn to use it in your own work.

The Rule of Thirds is a principle that believes ideal composition is divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically, with focal points (points of visual interest) placed at the intersections of these dividing lines. To demonstrate this, look to the graphic below:

As you can see, the Rule of Thirds divides the photo into 9 sections along 4 lines. These 4 lines are where you optimally wish to place elements of your photos, while the 4 points are the strongest for visual interest. This is because the human eye finds it uncomfortable to settle on the center of an image, and naturally migrates to one of these intersecting points. As such, when items are placed in that position, we visually interact with it much easier than we had before.

Furthermore, to see it in action, let’s look at screenshot I used as an example of asymmetrical composition and overlay the grid.

I placed my character to hang on the right side of the image, but still on the line of interest. If I had placed him in the center, it would have looked awkward and cluttered, given that his gestures look to the left, and therefore the camera would have cut off the fireflies in the background.

You can also use the Rule of Thirds for landscape photography, as the concept is to line up the horizon line with one of the horizontal division lines. Just look around, look at other photos, and see if you can find the lines yourself!

Depth of Field / Focus

But we covered the depth of field tool in the last lesson! We did, but the depth of field tool is so much more powerful than what we get in the extended GPose settings. In fact, in the future, I’ll be introducing you to an add-on that will let you use Depth of Field to its true potential, if you’re a PC player. For now, though, let’s look into what exactly it is.

Depth of Field refers to shifting focus between the foreground and background. It creates the illusion of depth, as if the image is deeper than pixels on a screen or on a sheet of paper. You could say it makes an image more “real” or “cinematic,” depending on how it is used, but it actually just plays tricks on your eyes.

But when do we want to use depth of field? Constantly! Focus brings the important parts of the image to the forefront and lets them shine! Without focus, our eyes don’t know where to linger and analyze, which can lead to some cluttered compositions. Compare these images and ask yourself what was the first thing your eye was drawn to:

It’s really different, right? In the top photo, my eyes tend to focus more on the group of flowers in the foreground, but in the second, they tend to focus on the flowers in the background. It could be the opposite for some, though, as I presented this in a spot-the-difference sort of way, so let’s try a singular example as well.

In this photo from last week, where is the first place your eye goes to?

For me, it’s my character’s face, and then to the lights on the right side. This is for two different reasons. First, we often look and focus on things we find familiar, like a human(-esque) face. But secondly, he’s the part of the photo most in focus. Without him there, our eyes would immediately go to the lit up window, as it is the part with the most visual contrast in the photo.

The same effect could potentially be made by blurring an image in Photoshop, but why do work in post when you can get the effect from the start? With an actual camera, the way we refer to this effect is by the f-number or focal number (also called an f-stop) the camera lens is set to. Inside the world of Final Fantasy XIV, this specific terminology is even retained, as the Depth of Field slider refers to the f-number.

TIP! Wanna practice your depth of field skills? I wouldn’t recommend trying it on plants like I did above, because certain environmental assets won’t be impacted by the Depth of Field slider in the extended GPose settings. (These only did because I was using an external add-on that amplified the effect.)

Instead, focus on your character, and combine the Camera Position and Depth of Field sliders to get the best results.

Leading Lines

Ever heard of the invisible line? It’s an artistic element we’ve seen everywhere, despite it being, well, invisible. Our eyes tend to attempt to find connections between objects, whether we realize it or not. In architectural design, this is often found with how walkways are laid out. Trees included in urban areas often line the border of sidewalks, acting like this invisible border that guides us as we walk, with our eyes drifting from one tree to the one behind it to the one behind that one until a line has unconsciously been drawn within our minds.

This same effect is often found in photography to direct the viewer’s attention. Leading lines come from all sorts of things, and are even naturally occurring, because they are formed based on the photographer’s perspective. You line up the elements that lead to your focal point, rather than your focal point creating a line from the random objects in the way.

It’s often strongest with repeating elements, which is pretty handy in games due to the reuse of assets in maps, but don’t let it deter you if the objects aren’t the same.

So, let’s look at another example with a shot I set up in Kugane, which is full of linear elements and architecture.

You probably can immediately see the leading lines, but just in case you find it difficult, let me draw in the most obvious ones.

The guard rail (or fence) naturally leads to where my character is placed from this angle. Even the railing in the background directs attention towards where he’s positioned, drawing attention in once more to the right side of the image, as once again, we see the Rule of Thirds at work.

TIP! Fences are great ways to practice leading lines in your photos. They’re easy to find throughout Eorzea and provide a steady line that can be manipulated without too much difficulty.

So, as you can pretty easily gather at this point, a lot of these concepts and principles are going to overlap. Don’t, however, feel as if you are bound to these suggestions like a ball and chain. You are free to take photos in the way you like — even if it means breaking these rules entirely — because what I covered today is simply that: suggestions. Take them with a grain of salt, or twenty.

And if you do choose to put some weight into these suggestions and incorporate them into your photo sessions, I do assure you that they will become second nature after some practice. You’ll eventually place characters or visual elements within the Rules of Thirds grid without even thinking about doing so, or even toggle the depth of field with just the thought that you want something more or less focused upon and nothing more. It gets easier, and faster, but the only way you’ll get there is through practice, practice, practice!

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Congratulations, Eorzean! You’ve survived yet another lesson and gotten to the end of what I consider to be the tutorial phase of Group Pose. You now know how it works, the foundation of how to better manipulate it through its extended settings, and what many photographers agree to be the principles that make up a good photo. You’re now free to roam with your camera, armed with new knowledge, to experience your new disciple class. Or, well, freer than you were before.

Quest Completed!

Up Next: Lights, Camera, Snaption!

In the near future, I’ll be showing off how I set up my shots, as well as introducing you to the wonderful world of ReShade. Until next time, and may your ever walk in the light of the crystal!

At this point, you might be thinking you’re ready to run out and take amazing screenshots within the large, exciting world of Hydaelyn. But hold on, new adventurer, for while you stand equipped with a great camera and a wild imagination, our tutorial continues still with a look into the most powerful tool at your disposal: /gpose.

Quest Received: Strike a /Pose!

Group Pose, or /gpose, refers to the in-game camera mode that exists within Final Fantasy XIV. To open it up, you can type /gpose into the chat menu as you would any other macro or action, or you can find it in the same menu you find your skill actions by toggling to the Extras tab on the left-hand side of the window. While that may work for your basic needs, there is an extended settings menu that opens if you press * on the PC/Mac versions of the game, or can be brought up on the PS4 version by pressing the square button once inside the group pose function (or, at least, so I’ve been told on the latter.).

But what exactly do these settings have to offer? If you have played around with /gpose in the past without these, you probably noticed you could do quite a bit of work from outside this setting box, including freeze the character mid-frame, shift the camera, “zoom” in and out, as well as drop a single external light. You can still get good pictures without the extra options, but it’s essentially the equivalent of bringing all your tools out to a photo shoot, and only using your smartphone as the camera in the end.

So let’s take a look at the basic window that comes up:

That’s a lot of stuff! For the focus of today, we’re only going to worry about General and Lighting settings from the left-hand icon list. You can achieve some interesting effects utilizing the other two tabs, but they focus more on action shots, which is a bit out of our purview for right now. Starting with the icons along the top, these settings work as follows:

Face Camera: When you load /gpose, your character will automatically turn to face wherever you have the “camera” (your screen view) and perform the last action (whether this be skill or emote) that happened within the current field. Whenever your targeted character isn’t frozen, you can toggle this option off to have them face the way they were originally oriented.

TIP! Finding it hard to get your character to look at the right spot? Shift your screen view and toggle the option on and off until you get their gaze right. It may take a few runs of watching the same emote on repeat, but it will be worth it for the perfect picture!

Toggle Lighting: This turns all of the lighting options set on or off. It does tend to not turn all of the lights back on if you add multiple light sources, however, so it might be better to avoid using it when you have a complicated shot set up.

Group Pause/Target Pause: These two do the same thing: pause and un-pause characters within the shot. The difference is the first one, Group Pause, effects all characters, while Target Pause will only impact the character currently targeted. Because of this, it’s often preferred to utilize Target Pause over Group, as each member of the photo can be individually manipulated to look their best!

Stop Time/Weather: A new addition to /gpose as of patch 4.4, this option finally allows for us to capture that perfect lighting moment or weather setting for as long as we need to, without worrying about the overworld changing as we work tirelessly to set up the shot. It usually is auto-activated whenever you use /gpose, so keep it in mind if you plan to wait for that ideal light.

Within General Settings, we get a few rather basic, yet fundamental photography options.

Zoom/Tilt: You can technically zoom in and out and angle the viewfinder of your “camera” with the mouse or controller, but what you’re really doing is moving the physical location of the camera when you do that. When you use the Zoom and Tilt options located within this setting menu, it’s like adjusting the lens of the camera, and allows you to zoom in much closer upon your character than you could get with the manual controls alone.

Color Filters: These are like the photo modes set onto your phone’s camera. They enhance or subtract from color and tone, and can be used to create some interesting effects and overall moods. In the diagram above, I provided a few examples, but there’s well over a dozen filters to try out, and I highly recommend playing around with the setting.

Screen Filters: Unlike Color Filters, these effects specifically apply to your screen and cover the whole image. Most of these are interesting textures, but others are colors. For an easily accessible example, the header image I use on this blog uses the Brilliant 2 Screen Filter, which casts a light rainbow effect over the entire screen. Again, I’d really recommend playing around with them, as there’s no right or wrong way to use them.

To demonstrate, here’s a few versions of a recent set of photos I took.

Depth of Field: Those familiar with photography may be familiar with the term F-Stop, short for Focus Stop. Depth of Field refers to the focus of the image, and can be adjusted to make the foreground or background blur or sharpen. In Final Fantasy XIV, however, this isn’t perfect, as using Stop 0 results in a slightly blurred image wholly, while Stop 10 is where all aspects of the image are sharp.

Limb Darkening: Lastly, this little option allows you to darken the edges of the photo depending on how much you pull the first slider. The second one moves the shadow off of the sides and onto the top and bottom edges, while the last three control the color. I like using this setting when I want a more serious mood or I feel the edges are distracting to the focus of the shot.

Let’s move on to lighting, huh? I promise it’s a lot simpler.

Within Final Fantasy XIV‘s photo mode, you can set 3 external lights outside of the natural or artificial (if you’re inside and have some of those spotlights in your house) lights already provided in the game. These can be helpful in correcting shadows and creating mood, as you can not only control the type of light, but also the color of the light. While it doesn’t seem to really matter with the light type when you use them close up, as they all are rather harsh, they do make a difference when you use them from afar.

Type 1 lights are the least diffused, casting light intensely in the direction specified.

Type 2 lights, however, are a bit less intense, and I like to use them as spotlights or artificial torches because of their “glow”.

Type 3 lights, however, are the most diffused lighting option, and are ideally suited to be used far away from the subject, as the light trickles in all directions, creating a more “natural” sort of light than the other two.

Here’s my setup of lights for a photo below. I only used two light drops: a pink type 2 placed nearby but behind a pot to lessen the light’s intensity, and a white type 3 placed out in the middle of the air near the tower once I had zoomed out to balance the shadows.

Resulting in this shot when combined with the /ponder expression and the /think emote:

Now you know a bit about your basic photography tools! You are now ready to get out there, find a great location, and strike a /pose! The best thing you can do at this point is practice, practice, practice, and play around with the settings to see what you can accomplish. So get on out there, Eorzean, and shoot, shoot, shoot!

Quest Completed!

Up Next: Getting the HQ Shot.

For some inspiration, feel free to browse through the other photos I took in the Royal Menagerie while working on this post, featuring a myriad of different lighting types, filters, and expressions!

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Virtual Photography  — or maybe you know it as video game photography — is this strange, rapidly growing form of image capture inserting itself into nearly every AAA game on the market these days. Some people refer to them as screenshots, while others assert that they are a valid form of photography. Personally, I fall into the latter, but I’m not interested in getting into the semantics of what is or isn’t a photograph… I’m interested at getting better at taking images in general, and showing how I see the world, even if that world might not even be technically real.

However, I’d be kind of remiss if I didn’t actually discuss the forms of photography there already are and why virtual photography is so interesting as a rising medium. So, before I can start a quest to better my own skills and hopefully give you all some tips and tricks along the way, we have to enter the tutorial level (Yes, I know! Who does tutorial levels anymore?) in order to understand exactly what we’re getting ourselves into.

Quest Accepted: Before You Get Snappy…

Virtual photography differs from other forms of photography because very literally, there is no camera. The screen is the closest thing to your camera, and all it really does is display what the viewfinder would while you toggle with sliders instead of lenses and dials. Just because there is not a camera in your hands, though, doesn’t mean we can ignore what a camera brings to the medium otherwise.

For my own purposes, I identify two other major forms of photography when I want to focus on the camera: traditional and digital photography. Others, perhaps experts, may choose to identify more, but I feel these broad areas just sum everything up nicely.

Let’s begin with traditional photography. You might find yourself asking: what do you mean by traditional? In this case, I am referring to whenever a camera uses physical film to store the images (You know, those little canisters you take to the local convenience store to get developed?). It’s been a long time since these types of cameras have been popular, but recently, one particular kind has resurfaced into the community vogue: the polaroid.

The reason why traditional photography is its own form is simple: the photographer has no idea if the photo they captured actually looks the way they wanted it to until they develop the film in a dark room later. It’s a physically labor intensive, risky form, but it also allows a skilled photographer to adjust the image inside the dark room with techniques that necessarily cannot be replicated in a digital format. It’s the oldest form, and still considered to be one of the most experimental when you consider different film types, camera types, and development methods.

Moving on to our second form: digital photography. This form is the one most people nowadays are very familiar with, as it’s the kind of cameras many of us grew up with or were used to seeing. Digital cameras and DSLR’s (Digital Single-Lens Reflex) make up the bulk of the cameras used in this medium, and technically, even that smart phone of yours’ belongs here, too. The distinguishing factor of digital photography to me is in the implementation of the viewfinder screen — an invention that allows the photographer to preview their image before and after it has been taken. Gone in this medium are the worries that a photo turned out badly or that somebody blinked, because you can always take another one immediately in that moment if so.

Digital photography also boasts digital film, which takes out the laborious effort of developing film in a dark room from the generation prior, and can even be considered a cost-saving asset as photographers no longer need to stock up on cases of film before they head out to shoot, only to have to pay for the development fees for each roll later on. And how can we forget the other avenue it opens up for the photographer to use: computer editing software. Some consider it to be a vastly superior form of photo-taking given its flexibility, but others insist that the special quality that comes with physical film cannot be beat.

Which brings us to our topic of study: virtual photography. The form of photography with no camera, where the computer or tv screen acts as the viewfinder. Video game photography is strange to some photographers, because it started out as a function that allowed players to share their experiences in-game over social media to their friends, but then was pushed into an art form of self-expression within a world the player could manipulate without ever needing to leave their house. While there is no money to be made through taking photos this way, at least not currently, it does allow for stunning photos that cannot be captured in any other way to occur.

On the surface, virtual may seem very similar to digital, as there is no film used, and similarly to how our smart phone cameras operate, adjustments are often made via sliders in the game’s photo modes, but virtual photography actually allows for such a high degree of manipulation for image composition that it is difficult to lump them in the same area. What a virtual photographer can do with a few keystrokes or toggles of a joystick, a digital photographer often has to combat feats of physics and massive post-editing to achieve, so I feel it truly is worthy of being its own, independent medium outside of the fact that, obviously, a video game photographer is taking pictures inside a game world.

Regardless of your own personal opinion of whether it is true photography or not, however, the foundations of what make a good image composition remain the same through the medium, which is what we’ll be taking a look at later as I go headfirst into the world of Final Fantasy XIV – A Realm Reborn to prove a real-world photographer can find some amazing images in a virtual world, too.

Quest Complete!
Next Up: Loading Your Inventory.