Video games are now so beautiful players are spending hours framing stunning works of Internet art

To capture the perfect light, Rasmus Furbo had Spider-Man squat on a queen-size bed.

The web announcer sat there, facing the end of the bed, against a studio-like black background for the hero's classic red and blue outfit. The photo shoot was not intended to promote the upcoming Marvel Cinematic magazine. Rather, this scene takes place in a video game.

Furbo, 33, has played video games most of his life, but over the summer he discovered what he calls "hobby within hobby" - what some call photography. “For me…it's like taking pictures in the real world,” says Furbo. "You only have this ability to go places you normally can't."

As developers push the boundaries of game consoles to enable three-dimensional exploration of surreal worlds, a community of fans is using photos – or rather screenshots – to record. their beauty.

 It's been five years since Sony first launched the PlayStation 4, and with that comes added functionality on every controller that allows gamers to share what they're doing on screen. Game development studios for the platform have begun offering what is commonly referred to as a "photo mode" as a way to pause the game, reposition the camera's perspective, and take a snapshot. Encouragement from the platform and game makers has fueled the artistry in video games that some people spend tens of hours on.

Cory Barlog, creative director of Studio Sony Santa Monica, said: "I thought this was a new concept at first and it was like having a whole bunch of controls dedicated to it, you know, like, 'There's something wrong with it. What's up?'" . "I think the photography modes have started to evolve and become one of those 'if you don't have it, why not?' something like that."

Not all games have a photo mode. Players can still take screenshots, but studios sometimes only provide the additional option of pausing the action and repositioning the camera. Only recently has this feature become an obvious and conspicuous part of how players interact with these virtual worlds. Games with photo modes are usually single-player stories – stories that are sequenced almost like you're playing a role in a movie. Photo mode gives them the added ability to be a director or a cinematographer.

 Insomniac Games, the studio behind Marvel's Spider-Man, created the photo mode as an extension of the Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) phone. Gil Doron, head of user interface and user experience, said he's still wondering what fans can achieve in the game.

"We didn't intend to create great light exclusively for photography, but we were shocked by this," says Doron. 

Doron led the team at Insomniac that developed the feature, and he said the goal was to give the community "a moment of their own".

Reddit has a community dedicated to Marvel's Spider-Man, which was released in September. The subreddit, r/SpidermanPS4, has more than 80,000 followers, more than the friendly neighbor's original subreddit, already exists on Reddit for 8 years.

 The majority of posts on r/SpidermanPS4 are screenshots, some are memes, but many others are artistic and carefully staged. There are articles admiring one of the many costumes you can wear in the game, images of Spider-Man swinging over the fictional Stark Tower in New York or just images of sunsets across the city. There's even a subreddit named after the comic diary, The Daily Bugle, devoted to beautiful in-game shots.

Angelo Cagnina, 18, is the moderator of r/SpidermanPS4 and said he started the subreddit two years before the game's first trailer was released. Cagnina said he thinks the photo mode plays a "huge role" in getting others interested in playing. “It’s easy to see a photo and like it,” says Cagnina, as the usual series doesn’t provide the same instant connection between fans.

Furbo, a graphic designer living in Aarhus, Denmark, said he was "really enamored with" the photo mode after discovering the feature in "God of War". He played the game a second time just to focus on taking pictures, and so far he says he alone has taken more than 5,000 pictures of God of War. Furbo says he takes photos while traveling, but in video games you have more control over moving around an environment, including the ability to "move around the environment, to closer to the character".

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 "If I'm traveling, I really don't have the guts to go up to people and ask if I can take a portrait of them if they look interesting," says Furbo. he brought in. in-game images. 

Chris Dicks, 28, who lives in West Sussex, England, set up an Instagram account to photograph the game and said just getting recognition from the studio or the actors behind the game is worth the effort. spend time on it.

Dicks said he is an amateur photographer outside of the game and has a passion for videography. He estimates that he played the game "The Last of Us" for the seventh time just to capture the game's key moments and ended up with over a thousand photos. “For me, it was from a cinematic point of view,” says Dicks. "They're very cinematic in the way they're made."

Playing the game “goes hand in hand with the feeling you get when you watch a movie,” says Dicks, adding that setting the scene in the game is almost like being a photographer on set. 

Not all photo modes are created equal. There are no industry standards and each studio creates its own offerings. Horizon Zero Dawn is often seen as a leader when it comes to providing a photo mode, which allows the player to step away from the main character and take pictures of the landscape on the map.

 Dicks said he considers the game to be the one that has led many fans to create accounts that take in-game photos, such as a nearby forest or mountain top. 

 “As a real-life photographer, I think if you walk around London for a day, you will look for good photo opportunities. It's the same thing when you're playing a game," says Dicks.

According to Dicks, it takes a lot of patience to get the right shot in a game. Although his friends also play video games, Dicks said many prefer multiplayer or story-based games rather than shooting.

“It can be rooted in real-world passion,” says Dicks. “I think the main difference can really be patience, patience and passion. In “Red Dead Redemption 2,” a recently released single-player western story from the studio behind “Grand Theft Auto,” there is no photo mode but an interesting photo capture option. While the player can capture the entire screen just like in other games, their character can also take a picture while carrying the in-game camera.

Furbo explains an instance in which his character was running around taking pictures in the middle of a real gunfight — armed with nothing but an old camera.

“I felt like I was running around like a battlefield photographer,” said Furbo with a laugh. "It's fun. The photos don't look very good, but somehow they look a little more realistic. ”