How To Take High-Quality Pictures in Games with Photo Mode

Nowadays, most games provide a feature called Photo Mode. This is a tool found in-game that you can use to take high-quality pictures (or screenshots, if you’d like) and use them however you want, including setting them up as your wallpapers.

I’ve already written about my personal opinion that developers should focus on building a great Photo Mode feature, but this time, I’d like to show you can actually use the thing. Usually, most Photo Modes have very similar or even the same settings, so I will focus on the most complex ones (if you know them all, you can use them all).

By the way, here’s a list of gaming wallpapers that I provide completely for free to all of our readers, and all of them come in 4K ultrawide quality at 3440×1440 resolution. That should give you an idea of what you can do with Photo Mode.

What is the Photo Mode, and how can I use it?

The ‘Photo Mode‘ is basically a tool that you can find in most games that lets you take high-quality pictures and capture the best moments. Usually, in most games, this mode is available through the ‘Settings‘ section by pressing the ESC button on your keyboard.

Photo Modes can capture pictures in two different ones, and unfortunately, many of them may require multiple steps until you have your shot saved.

1. Manual Print Screen:
   • Press the keyboard key to hide the game’s UI.
   • Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard.
   • Open Microsoft Paint and simply paste the image (Ctrl + V).
   • Click on “File” and then “Save Us” and save the image in JPG format.
2. Automatic Capture:
   • Press the keyboard key to hide the game’s UI.
   • Click on the “Capture” button.
   • Head over to your “Pictures” folder to find all your shots.

Now, there’s a high chance that you’ll see an option called “…“. The more you increase this option, the higher the picture’s quality will end up being, but the longer you’ll have to wait for the capture process to complete.

All the settings that Photo Modes include

Some may offer a simple Photo Mode with limited options, while others offer plenty of useful, and sometimes fun, features such as changing your character’s facial expression, moving freely to take the best possible angle, pre-made filters and colors, and so much more.

I’d do my best to include them all, but keep in mind that many new games can also include new features that we haven’t seen in the past. If you found such a feature, let me know in the comments at the end of this page.

Complete Photo Mode Feature Table:

Examples of different Photo Modes

Now that you know all of the options that you can usually find in most robust Photo Modes (although many won’t have them all), the only difference you’ll see is the environment of each one.

There are usually three ways that the interface may include all the options. The first one is by categorizing all the options using sections, like the example below:

The second one is by only using your mouse and selecting each section, like the following example from Shadow of the Tomb Raider:

The third one is by changing the sections using (usually) Q to move left and E to move right, like the following example in Days Gone:

Based in Nora‘s review (and I can agree), Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice arguably has one of the worst Photo Modes, and that’s because the menu looks outdated and to capture a picture you’ll have to print screen it first, and then save it using a third-party application such as Microsoft Paint.

Whatever the game that you’re playing, most of the time, you’ll find the instructions on how to use the Photo Mode feature at the bottom of your screen (as you can see from all the examples that I gave you above).

Examples of pictures that you can take

Wondering how good of a picture you can take using the Photo Mode feature?

Here are a few examples, all of them taken by me, using the Photo Mode feature explicitly and without any additional editing (some of them have been resized in resolution for the purpose of the article):

And you can make a lot better than me, and if there’s anything to be said, it’s that using the Photo Mode has been the most fun I had in games – and a great way to explore their worlds even more, just so you can find the best spot.

How you can use the photos that you take

There are plenty of ways that you can use the pictures that you take using the in-game Photo Mode feature, including for sharing them on social media platforms, using them as wallpapers, provide them for others, include them in your review articles and videos, and if the developers allow you, you can even use them for commercial purposes.

If you keep a gaming journal, those images will be great for keeping records of your in-game experiences and progress. Others may use those pictures for comparisons, including before and after, based on different settings, graphics, modes, and even remastered versions or DLCs.

If you want to use those in-game pictures for commercial use, such as selling them online, please make sure that you searched if the developers or company permitting you or not.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Photo Mode

Have more questions? Ask them on our Gaming Forum or use the comments section at the end of this page.