Top 10 Games with the Best Photo Modes

While Elden Ring doesn’t feature a traditional photo mode out of the box, its camera-friendly world design and mod support have elevated it into a favorite among in-game photographers. The Lands Between is a vast, mysterious realm filled with ancient ruins, terrifying monsters, and awe-inspiring fantasy vistas. It practically begs to be captured.

Players use third-party tools or in-game tricks like gesture poses and UI hiding to take striking screenshots. Community-created mods have added full-featured photo mode options, including free camera, depth of field, and lighting controls. Even without official tools, the game's painterly skyboxes, dynamic weather, and epic boss designs make every scene feel worthy of a screenshot.

Elden Ring’s use of negative space, color palettes, and gothic architecture offers endless composition opportunities. Whether it’s a sunlit plateau or a fog-drenched battlefield, each location provides context and emotion. For those willing to tinker, Elden Ring becomes a masterpiece of virtual fantasy photography.

It’s a testament to FromSoftware’s world design that even without built-in tools, players are still inspired to capture its haunting beauty frame by frame.

Death Stranding presents a haunting, surreal landscape that is as beautiful as it is lonely. The game’s photo mode emphasizes mood, isolation, and ethereal scenery, making it ideal for players interested in emotional visual storytelling. Set across decaying America, the world features dramatic cliffs, moody skies, and minimalistic vistas that rival fine art photography.

The photo mode lets players control camera tilt, filters, aperture, and brightness. You can toggle Sam’s expression, add frames, and even create multi-character group shots with NPCs. The interface is clean, making it easy to experiment with composition and lighting.

What makes Death Stranding’s visuals so compelling is their starkness. The terrain feels like another planet—alien, yet familiar. Whether you’re capturing a long hike across a windswept valley or a silhouette against a stormy skyline, the images evoke strong emotion.

The photo mode complements the game’s themes of connection and solitude, letting you capture moments that feel truly cinematic. For fans of atmospheric world-building and minimalist aesthetics, Death Stranding offers a unique and powerful visual playground.

In the world of racing games, Gran Turismo 7 offers a photo mode unlike any other. Known as "Scapes," this feature lets you place your car in thousands of real-world environments and photograph them with studio-level precision. For car lovers and digital photographers, it’s a dream come true.

The photo mode lets players adjust focus, shutter speed, aperture, lighting angles, and even simulate real-world lens behavior. The level of realism is astonishing. Cars reflect the environment with ray-traced accuracy, and shadows behave naturally. The results often look indistinguishable from real car photography, making this one of the most advanced photo simulation systems in gaming.

Gran Turismo 7 also includes a track photo mode, letting you capture high-speed racing action in real-time. Whether you're snapping a shot of a perfectly timed drift or a serene profile of your dream car parked in Tokyo at night, the game’s visual fidelity and camera tools support endless creativity.

For those who view cars as art, Gran Turismo 7’s Scapes mode offers a near-limitless platform to express your automotive obsession with professional polish.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla combines historical accuracy with mythological grandeur, and its photo mode is tailor-made to showcase this blend of realism and fantasy. As Eivor explores ninth-century England and Norway, players encounter sweeping countryside, crumbling monasteries, and icy fjords, all ripe for virtual photography.

The photo mode allows for panoramic wide shots, close-up portraits, and everything in between. Users can control exposure, tilt, zoom, and saturation. The ability to hide the character or manipulate depth of field lets you emphasize the world’s majestic landscapes or detailed textures on ancient structures.

What sets Valhalla apart is its natural integration of light and atmosphere. Golden sunsets over the countryside, snowstorms in the North, and mysterious auroras provide perfect lighting for composition. For fans of historic environment photography in video games, Valhalla offers a vast and immersive canvas.

The game also integrates a social feature, allowing players to share their photos with others on the world map. This turns virtual photography into a community experience, where creative framing and discovery become part of the broader gameplay.

Despite its rocky launch, Cyberpunk 2077 features one of the most visually complex and rewarding photo modes in gaming. Night City is a neon-soaked dystopia teeming with detail, atmosphere, and style—making it an ideal setting for high-fidelity urban photography in games.

The photo mode is activated at any time (outside cutscenes), offering full control over camera positioning, field of view, aperture, and exposure. There’s also a wide range of filters, lighting presets, and depth-of-field effects. For character shots, you can adjust poses, expressions, and even add dramatic visual flares like chromatic aberration or scanline overlays.

What makes Cyberpunk’s photo mode stand out is how well it captures the city’s verticality and grit. Skyscrapers loom over alleys filled with graffiti, while puddles reflect rain-soaked neon billboards. The blend of technology and decay offers infinite compositional possibilities. Whether you're capturing a reflective character moment in a back alley or the chaos of a firefight, the mood is always intense.

Cyberpunk 2077 proves that even in chaos, there’s beauty to be found—and its photo mode allows players to document that tension in visually stunning ways.

Superhero games are inherently cinematic, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales takes this to another level with its incredibly dynamic photo mode. Set in a wintery New York City, the game’s vibrant energy, stylish visuals, and high-flying action sequences make it a playground for creative screenshots.

The photo mode offers more than just standard camera angles. You can pose Miles in mid-swing, apply comic-style overlays, customize lighting, and even switch facial expressions. There are stickers, frames, and unique filters that bring a graphic novel vibe to your images. This level of customization is perfect for players looking to capture heroic action poses with flair.

Dynamic lighting adds another layer of depth, with neon reflections, snowfall, and city lights providing excellent backdrops. You can pause the game mid-air and rotate the camera around Miles to get that perfect web-slinging shot. Whether you’re snapping rooftop silhouettes at dusk or close-up portraits with frosted breath in the air, the photo mode captures emotion and motion equally well.

For fans of superhero aesthetics, Miles Morales offers a photo mode that balances fun, function, and style. It’s a celebration of youthful heroism and street-level vibrancy, all wrapped in stunning visual fidelity.

Red Dead Redemption 2 offers one of the most lifelike open-world environments ever created, and its photo mode is ideal for virtual nature photography and cinematic moments. From mist-covered forests and expansive plains to gritty saloons and candlelit cabins, every location is brimming with photographic opportunity.

Photo mode is accessible through the in-game camera, giving players the choice between a handheld snapshot style or a free-form editor with advanced tools. You can toggle lens filters, change exposure, adjust depth of field, and capture both first-person and third-person perspectives. Even better, the game auto-saves photos in a gallery, making it easy to revisit your favorite scenes.

Where Red Dead Redemption 2 truly excels is in its natural lighting. Sunrises over snowy mountains, thunder rolling through prairies, or a still lake reflecting twilight hues all look spectacular. The photo mode is especially rewarding for those who love environmental storytelling and Americana aesthetics.

With an evolving weather system, living wildlife, and emergent events, every journey across the frontier offers countless chances for the perfect shot. Red Dead Redemption 2’s photo mode isn't just a gimmick—it’s a love letter to the beauty of the American West.

The Last of Us Part II doesn’t just offer emotional storytelling and top-tier gameplay—it delivers a deeply immersive photo mode that lets players capture its haunting beauty and intimate character moments. Set in a world ravaged by time and infection, the game's richly textured environments and expressive character models make for compelling photographic subjects.

Photo mode in The Last of Us Part II offers a robust suite of tools. You can adjust aperture, focal length, camera roll, brightness, and contrast, among other settings. The ability to freeze scenes in real-time and tweak lighting allows you to tell your own visual story. Whether you’re documenting a violent showdown, a quiet walk through overgrown ruins, or a rare moment of peace, the tools help convey raw emotion.

The game's lighting system is a standout. With dynamic shadows and realistic ambient light, even subtle scenes can take on a dramatic tone. The detail in character animation—every wrinkle, tear, and subtle glance—adds depth to portrait shots. For those who appreciate story-driven photo documentation in gaming, this is a goldmine.

The Last of Us Part II treats each captured frame as part of the narrative. It’s not just about beauty—it’s about capturing tension, trauma, and fleeting humanity in a world undone.

Few games offer such vivid and detailed environments as Horizon Forbidden West, and its photo mode is crafted with these visuals in mind. Players step into the shoes of Aloy as she explores a post-apocalyptic world filled with mechanical beasts, lush biomes, and breathtaking ruins of a lost civilization. The combination of natural beauty and sci-fi wonder makes this game a dream for virtual photographers.

The photo mode provides full control over camera angles, exposure, focus, and field of view. You can also customize character poses, facial expressions, and even hide Aloy entirely if you want to focus on the landscape. This flexibility turns ordinary moments into works of art and makes it easy to share high-quality gaming screenshots with cinematic flair.

What truly sets Horizon Forbidden West’s photo mode apart is its clarity and detail. From the textures on Aloy’s armor to the intricate design of robotic wildlife, every pixel is crafted for close-up admiration. Players can zoom into scenes, fine-tune the composition, and apply visual effects that rival modern editing tools.

With constant movement in foliage, weather systems, and rich lighting, every environment feels alive. Horizon Forbidden West empowers players to freeze those moments in time and transform gameplay into a photographic exploration of post-apocalyptic beauty.

When it comes to cinematic photo mode experiences, Ghost of Tsushima stands as one of the most impressive examples in gaming. Set in feudal Japan during the Mongol invasion, the game offers sweeping landscapes, poetic atmosphere, and fluid character animations that make every frame worth capturing. The photo mode complements this aesthetic with an array of professional-grade tools.

Players can manipulate weather conditions, change the time of day, and add dynamic wind or particle effects like falling leaves and fireflies. The depth-of-field slider allows for true lens-like focus control, while the ability to freeze combat mid-motion adds a dramatic flair to action photography. You can even animate your shots, creating living scenes that blend video and photography.

What makes Ghost of Tsushima’s photo mode truly immersive is how naturally it fits into the game’s tone. From the amber glow of a bamboo forest at dusk to the sharp contrast of a bloodied katana under moonlight, the game offers countless opportunities to explore visual storytelling through in-game photography. There’s also a suite of filters, focal lengths, and character pose tools that let players craft everything from epic fight scenes to serene nature portraits.

Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t just let you take pictures—it inspires you to become a visual artist within its stunning world.