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The future of photography is taking screenshots in video games


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I would rephrase saying, such things would be in the future of photography, among possibly many other things. I have always felt, we are transitioning into an era where the boundaries between computer generated imagery and traditional photography will be progressively more fluid, giving rise to a unified genre of 2d visual art. I also think, traditional photography will not lose its charm in future because there is a value in people’s minds, of connecting real life with captured imagery. If nothing else, that should keep traditional photography alive, as a parallel genre.

 

I am impressed, how realistic real time graphical rendering has become. The person who selected the screenshot captured a unique mood and environment, so some credit goes to him/her.

Edited by Supriyo
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It has nothing to do with photography, it's about creating "content" on Instagram . Content could be anything, only purpose of it to generate likes and following.

In this concrete situation, if guy will generate enough interest and following, he will be sued by content original creators, which is video game copyright owners.

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I mostly disagree.

if guy will generate enough interest and following, he will be sued by content original creators, which is video game copyright owners
Not sure about that. - I am of course not familiar with every game under the sun, but there must be more virtual things like Second Life, that encourage photo and video production inside.

Taking a picture of the Mona Lisa doesn't make you an artist.

Absolutely true, but where is the difference between growing a flower in your garden and shooting it how you like and cobbling a virtual scene together?

 

In real life camera handling can have an appeal of it's own. So far I failed to perceive this joy with either cell phones or tablets used as cameras or using mouse and Keyboard handling Second Life. While that virtuality provides options to frame arrange emulate focal length select the kind of emulated daylight or position light sources and even an option to generate shallow DOF, it is still lacking an option to focus and recompose within that.

]It has nothing to do with photography[/u], it's about creating "content" on Instagram
I am not sure how you define "photography". The only difference I see between real life picture and screenshot hunting is in the user interfaces.
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I mostly disagree.

Not sure about that. - I am of course not familiar with every game under the sun, but there must be more virtual things like Second Life, that encourage photo and video production inside.

 

Absolutely true, but where is the difference between growing a flower in your garden and shooting it how you like and cobbling a virtual scene together?

 

In real life camera handling can have an appeal of it's own. So far I failed to perceive this joy with either cell phones or tablets used as cameras or using mouse and Keyboard handling Second Life. While that virtuality provides options to frame arrange emulate focal length select the kind of emulated daylight or position light sources and even an option to generate shallow DOF, it is still lacking an option to focus and recompose within that.

]It has nothing to do with photography[/u], it's about creating "content" on Instagram
I am not sure how you define "photography". The only difference I see between real life picture and screenshot hunting is in the user interfaces.

"Photography is the art, application and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film.",- Wikipedia. Screenshot doesn't record any radiation, it's copying content created by others.

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On this topic ...

 

Jan Dirk van der Burg is an established Dutch documentary photographer. He publishes a weekly photo + short article in a national newspaper and he was chosen as "Photographer Laureate of the Netherlands" for 2018 – 2019.

 

A recent photo festival in my home town included an exhibition by van der Burg, which consisted of series of photos that he had found on the internet.

A short profile of van der Burg (in English) and an interview (in Dutch with English sub-titles) can be found on the photo festival website.

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A large part of artistry is not only about creating something out of rocks, paints or paper, it is also about highlighting and showing something in a specific context that viewers would have missed otherwise. A pre-made image or a series of pre-made images can convey an idea or expression when chosen and displayed in a proper context or sequence. That way, it is expressing the artistic vision of the selector/presenter, rather than the creator of the images.

 

That said, I am not endorsing the video game screenshot as a work of art. The guy must have liked the particular scene while playing the game and wanted to share it. It ends there, nothing more. However I am ready to consider that his example can have future implications in visual creation and opportunities.

 

I agree that the screenshot is not photography, but it looks and feels like a real scene (with some anomalies), has aesthetic qualities, and imparts a certain mood in the viewer, in many ways as a photo does. Such things are interesting to discuss in the context of photography, or even act as an idea for a future photo.

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There is nothing new under the sun, really. One can just take up painting. Photography is capturing the world. Conveying a scene, via painting or CGI, is not sufficient to be called photography. You can combine photography with other art forms, but that is meta-photography, not photography per se.

 

But, capturing scenes in video games - or even just pixel art - is its own thing, and it's kind of cool. Well, IMHO!

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I have wondered if virtual realities, once they get good enough to look totally real, might permit the participant to take pictures within the virtual reality just as they did in real life and if they did, if it would be considered photography. Suppose you are disabled and can't move without a wheelchair. Suppose that someone makes a virtual reality of Kauai that you can move around in virtually with your virtual camera? Your pictures still involve choice and composition and evaluation of the light and your virtual camera might have limitations as part of its simulation in terms of depth of field, inability to record the complete range of light, and so on. Makes me think.

 

I took this in XPlane once. I set it up with the plane, looking for a good composition. Not bad, and it kind of made me think about this. Note my data dump spoils the effect a little, but since my goal was to show what a simulated plane could look like in the program, my objective actually favored showing it WAS a simulation.

 

Cessna172SPweb.thumb.jpg.2848fab4fa2085c3327c97488766bede.jpg

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Screenshots of "Red Dead", a video game, represents not art but a new type of gaming. Children (and perhaps some biological adults) like to watch others play popular video games via screenshots. I noticed this with my grandchildren, amid the ballooning popularity of "Minecraft" ten years ago or so. Rather than use it creatively to build virtual structures, they preferred to watch someone else do it. My youngest grandchildren like to watch videos of adults (?) playing house with dolls. GMWAS!

 

I don't think these trends spell the end of art and creativity, but may well delay social development. I'd add more, but I want to get back to my computer simulation of Spassky vs Fisher, 1992.

 

* GMWAS: Gag me with a spoon

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I have wondered if virtual realities, once they get good enough to look totally real, might permit the participant to take pictures within the virtual reality just as they did in real life and if they did, if it would be considered photography.

It would be virtual photography.

 

But, this virtual photography is more like photographing dioramas than like painting. The difference is only that dioramas are real (as in physical). Shooting highly detailed dioramas was a thing, but that was before my time.

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