Winter Spider Set Walkthrough
Updated: Dec 18, 2020
Welcome to the very first FirstPersonShutter blog post!
For this one, I'm going to do a quick walk-through of an upcoming photomode set I'm particularly excited about. Can't wait to see what you all can do with these techniques!
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Snowy Lights
Title: Winter Spider
Game: Spider-Man Miles Morales
Developer: Insomniac
Platform: PlayStation4 Pro
Location Scouting
The first step here was to pick an ideal spot to shoot. For this type of photo, try to find a place and time where the primary light source strikes just one half of the subject. In this case, Miles Morales in the Classic Suit. I also loved how the light brightened up the snow against the darker brick wall.
The goal here is to have part of your subject in soft light, and the other half in almost no light. More on that later.
Lights Out
To black out the background, pull the exposure all the way down. Don't worry if this makes your image nearly solid black, it's all part of the plan.
While you are in this setting, go ahead and pull the focus distance to about 4 or 5 and the aperture to around 50 percent.
As I'm typing this, I'm thinking I also really like the way the image looked before bringing the exposure down 😅 perfect case for taking plenty of pics throughout your sets. You might find something you really like that you might have otherwise missed
Since we want the background to be solid, this will help smooth out any details of the city behind Miles. Now you can turn the exposure all the way off. You might end up bringing it back up after getting everything else set, but this will give you a level start.
I was a little nervous this would end up being too dark, but in the end it definitely worked out. Just dark enough to black out the background, but still left some light shining on Miles to let the detail shine through on that side.
Now we get to use one of the new photomode features included in Spider-Man Miles Morales and Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered. The Light Mode.
Lights On
Find a good angle where you can see most of your subject since you won't be able to move the camera around in light mode (accessible by clicking square on the dualshock. You can also enter the sticker mode in a similar way). One you are there you have two options, sphere or spotlight.
I tend to favor the sphere light source since it seems to produce the most light coverage without overblowing the details, but there's definitely a case for both.
Below is what the sphere setting looked like once I applied it to the image. For this particular shot I took the color intensity all the way down to keep the original colors of the suit, but don't hesitate to experiment with the various light shades. You can get some pretty insane effects by playing the light colors off the suit, especially ones with metallic materials.
Almost done, but to get the light effect I was looking for I needed to rotate the sphere light source to the other side of Miles. The side that the original light source did not directly touch.
There you have it!
By rotating the new light source to the darker side, I could increase the light without blowing out the details and maintain some visual clarity in the (now darker) side.
This part might be personal preference for what you think looks better, but having one side as solid black didn't grab me the way that the final image did. I've also thought about trying this again with different, more vibrant colors on the lighter side...
After I got the style I wanted, I grabbed dozens of the photos using various filters and exposure settings. Be sure to have fun with it! There are certain things to look for if you are trying to appeal to an audience (I'll be posting a best practices article soon!) but first and foremost find a picture that you like. Something you wouldn't mind hanging up on your wall.
If you found this article helpful, want to share feed back or have any questions please feel free to reach out to me on instagram @firstpersonshutter
You can also find full resolution downloads of this set on my game page for Spider-Man Miles Morales
Don't forget to send me your photomode creations and I'll try to share as many of my favorites as I can 😁