Taking Screenshots

There are a lot of screenshots on PlanetPhillip, some good, some not so good and some really bad ones. I take responsibility for some but not all. That doesn’t mean I don’t recognise a good screenshot when I see one!

I was recently asked by a mod maker, who shall remain anonymous, to take some really good screenshots of his mod similar to a mod I had promoted in the past. In this case the screenshots were from Wivenhoe: The Fall Of Ravenholm. I explained that I hadn’t taken those ones but would do my best. Unfortunately I couldn’t take anything as good. It got my thinking about the subject and here we are.

What I hope to do is start a discussion and begin to collect useful resources that may help you. I’ll try and present my thoughts but I would really like everybody with some experience to post their thoughts here in the hope we can create a clear and concise guide to taking great screenshots.

You need some clear objectives in mind BEFORE you start capturing screens. What exactly is the screenshot going to be used for? Is it to demonstrate great architecture or is it giving the viewer ambience and mood? Consider making a list of exactly what you want to capture and then go out looking for it.

In this case yes!. What size will the screenshots be displayed in? Knowing that a larger version will be available means you can include more details. If you know the maximum size is 200 x 150 then the content needs to fill the image.

Another point that has started to become important is aspect. By using a wide aspect you give that cinematic feel, but at the same time make it hard for some viewers to get the full benefit.

When the mod maker came to me and asked for help it became clear that you are limited by the map or mod itself. Dark, narrow and creepy corridors make great screenshots really difficult. Be realistic, a screenshot of a Half-Life 2 beach is generally going to look better, especially in thumbnail form, than the Doom 3 corridor!

What I am trying to say is that screenshots can’t always express how good a map or mod is, in these cases perhaps you should consider making a video.

After entering sv_cheats 1 in the console there are a number of commands that can be very useful for getting great screenshots.

Don’t be limited by the player’s viewpoint, use noclip within Source engine games to allow you to fly or move viewpoint. Taking a screenshot from the position of the feet looking up can give some great perspective. The same can be true for the birds-eye view. Be careful though because players often assume that what they seen in screenshots is the view they will get when they play the map.

Another cheat that I often use is god, this command makes me invincible and it allows me to forget about dying and focus on the screenshots themselves. It also allows me to let the enemies come really close and I enjoy taking screenshots when the enemies faces fill the screen, especially as the header image for the post.

Another useful cheat is notarget, this makes me invisible to the enemy and that allows me to take screenshots where the enemy are doing what they normally do, instead of chasing me.

There are three other commands I use regularly. These remove the weapon, the crosshairs and the HUD. I need to use these if I take a panoramic image but you could also use them if you just wanted an image without elements that distract the viewer.

If you haven’t already entered it start with sv_cheats 1, use impulse 200 to remove the weapon, crosshair 0, to remove the crosshair and finally cl_drawhud 0 to remove the HUD. OF course you can use any combination of those commands if you prefer.

I’ve already touched on this point by mentioning the aspect of screenshots. Many people use wide aspects because of the new dimensions of the monitors. However, you can go one step further and produce panoramic images. There are various forms of panoramics but the one I prefer to use on PP is the full version. I use the commands listed above and then I take a screenshots from every direction. One small application merges them together and another application converts it into an SWF file.

You could simply produce a 180 degree image if you prefered. In fact I am going to be experimenting with these images in the Summer.

Whether you take screenshots from In-Game will depend on what effect or aspect you are trying to capture. Explosions and blasts obviously have to be take in-game, as do other aspects. However, If you are the mapper you may wish to try and take some of the screenshots from with the editor, this would give you the opportunity to remove the enemies and just leave the level itself.

If you have time then I would suggest playing the map first before worrying about screenshots. I have to admit that recently I haven’t done this but it really depends on the size of the map or mod in question. If a mod takes a few hours to play then you are unlikely to play it twice just to get screenshots!

Don’t forget to look back after you have finished a section or area. Sometimes the view can be better than when playing. Some sections make the player rotate, whereas others almost force you to keep moving forward. I sometimes find that stopping and looking back can bring some interesting views.

Generally I simple use the option of taking screenshots from within the game using the standard method. I modify the key used, in stead of F5 I use the Down Mouse Wheel action. However, there are some application that allow you to automatically take screenshots at timed intervals. These can sometimes produce effects or views you wouldn’t have thought of. GameCam and Fraps may have these options. It’s worth trying the free versions and seeing if you like them.

When I use the word demos I am talking about the action of recording a video from within the game itself, not the idea of a test version of a game. Recording .dems can produce stunning action screenshots. Here’s a brief guide. Firstly you start recording a .dem and play the section you want screenshots of. Then you watch the .dem. If you think there could be some good screenshots you watch it again but at a much slower speed. This allows you to get some great effects, like explosions, or muzzle flashes.

For more information of .dem see: My Guide and Valve’s Guide.

Learn how to manipulate images with some sort of image editor. I use Photoshop to generally lighten very dark images. However, if you do this you may want to advise people that this has been done. Of course you are not limited to just lighten images.

Valve has a very good guide to some of the manipulation techniques possible here: <\ href="http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/How_To_Take_Screenshots">How To Take Screenshots.

Sometimes I have increased the video level of the game specifically to take screenshots. This will depend on your system and the game you are playing. This is a situation where you probably should be using some sort of gameplay cheat to avoid contact with the enemy otherwise the frames per second could drop too much.

Another thing I do is set the jpeg quality to 100 via the console: First type sv_cheats 1, press enter then type jpeg_quality 100 and press enter.

Do some research on how to take good normal photographs. Things like subject and background etc. I know nothing about normal photography (In fact most of my photographs contains a HUGE finger tip in the bottom left-hand corner!) A lot, if not all, the guides for normal photographs can still apply for screenshots.

I currently put watermarks on all images I have taken for use on PlanetPhillip. Anybody is free to take the images found here on PP and use them, but at least I get some sort of publicity. If you are a mapper then you should consider adding a watermark but it is probably only really important if you have a website or the mod is quite big.

Having said that you could easily have a small watermark if you had a logo or wanted to ensure players became aware of your work.

So, there you have them, my thoughts about screenshots. I don’t claim to be an expert and often my screenshots never look as good as I had hoped. But with a little thought and planning you can definitely improve the screenshots you take.

Please add you thoughts, suggestions and comments below.