In this section, I would be doing game photography! It is a really good alternative for those like me, who do not have an actual digital camera and like games. So, I expected that I would be able to learn a lot from this (enjoying applying what I learned in making compositions and photography techniques). 

I would be using my laptop for this activity which is a Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU with 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card paired with a 512GB NVMe SSD. A 15.6" 165Hz FHD display and Legion Coldfront 3.0 cooling keep it running smoothly, and HDMI 2.1 round out the setup.

I mainly play FPS games on my laptop, so it is my first go at high graphics games especially those with photo mode. Selecting the game that is available (free) for me took time since I found that most games I installed were unsupported by Nvidia Ansel or without in-game photo mode, but I found... 

This is one of my last shots, which I find most fitting with what I look for in an action shot. Among the three locations, only this scene had something that could be classified as an enemy.  I intended to convey what the scene is all about which is the ship being infested by hive-monsters and what role the character play in this.

Stepping on the location, I firstly noticed that there are some parts with great light source in dark tunnels. My first idea was to use that light to highlight the front of the character which I found a bit bland. I ended up using the light for backlighting for a more dramatic and focused shot. It took me a lot of tries, jumping and gunning around to get the right pose.

This was among the first shots that I find worth being selected, as it is one of the cleanest shot. I liked how the subject and the texture and pattern of the ground is enhanced in here by the light and low exposure as I intend to capture the slide motion. The direction  of the slide motion was also lead by the lines from the ground, the spark, and leg motion. Tilting the frame was also intended for this purpose, while keeping the depth of field's distance low and its depth high to make the front in focus.

Again, the third location had a really compelling light source. This is another shot that I find great and cinematic which latterly only realized why I specially like this pose because it resembled the liberty statue. It was relevant to the concept of the ship being freed from infestation, or simply ushering hope for the place. It was fit with the character being some sort of a guardian in the game lore.

This was the only photo from the second location, which I find a need to be in here as it was one of the most evident frame within a frame composition among those I took. In this photo, it was similar from above where I used the depth of field to blur the front and the back, focusing on the subject. Although there are no action scene in here, I liked how the elements came to be as there are lines, shapes, and color that direct attention towards the subject.

Not an action shot but was among the first that I taken that I found myself enjoying experimenting. This is another clean shot where I got to find a light source and tweaked the exposure and scene lighting to low while keeping down the depth of field. A great emphasis was put in the avatar in this photo through the colors a and lines which makes it visually appealing. It took my a bit of time on how to compose it with the rule of thirds.

There are many things that are limited when shooting photos in real life: the time of day,  available light source, environment, camera quality, distance, and angle, and the replicability of an event. All of these are solved with game photography which makes it a very interesting and good practice alternative. In reality, I had a low-quality phone camera for taking photos but with the high graphics game, I was able to capture HD pictures which makes it enjoyable and worthwhile. 

This activity allowed me to practice the techniques and composition I learned. The virtual camera allowed me to practice the depth of field which was unavailable in my camera unless it was solely for aperture (no control of other exposure setting, i.e. ISO and shutter speed). Having control of the subject’s motion and the light of the environment is not possible in the real world, but with photo mode, I was able to make ideal adjustments. Perhaps, this adjustability may not be present in real world applications but I was able to practice how to envision shots and was familiarized with tweaking camera settings.

In this activity, I was able to realize that taking great photos requires a lot of effort, a lot of struggles, and a lot of tries. I will take back what I said from other activities that taking good photos can be taken from basically anywhere. There are a lot of things to consider and must be unified: timing, composition, subject, environment, lighting, and angle. I had to explore hours, jump here and there, repeat the same motions, and adjust angles to find interesting frames. However, it was so rewarding every time when you see that your tries are getting better until I am in the process of selecting photos that makes me know what makes one much better than the other. There are unlimited tries and unlimited replicability, this is a constraint in the real world where it waits for nothing, a single shot could be all it takes. 

However, the main problem that I had in this activity was the variety of locations available, since I was limited to in-door game scenery where I was so dependent on low exposure settings and darker shots. It somehow repeats the instance with my phone camera where I am used to compensating for lower ISO and shutter speed for more detailed shots. It is regrettable since there was a time constraint for me to know that I need to grind the game before accessing scenes that can allow me to make other kinds of shots like landscape or architecture. Despite this, the activity proved immensely beneficial, reinforcing my existing knowledge and preparing me for real-world photography with a sharper eye and refined technique.

Ultimately, virtual photography is more than just a substitute—it’s a training ground. It bridges the gap between theory and practice, offering a risk-free space to hone skills before stepping into the unpredictable, unforgiving world of real-life photography.