The Daily Grind: What do you look for when taking screenshots?

Not like she'll have many times to wield a shoulder-mounted cannon, right?

There's an art to taking a cool screenshot, an art that I'm sadly not very good at. I never seem to be able to take good shots in combat, and my attempts at picking out perfect environments are pretty much nonexistent. The one thing I can do is ensure that whether I'm in Final Fantasy XIV or Star Wars: The Old Republic, I have good screenshots of my characters looking cool. I've paused what I'm doing in-game on occasion just to make sure that I can line up a nice character shot perfectly.

Of course, some people can find perfect angles for landscapes. Some people look for a funny glitch or a strange character type. And some people just find the right art to capture an intense battle in one moment. What do you look for when you're taking a screenshot? Do you go to great lengths to set up the right shot, or do you just have a knack for getting a certain picture type just right?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Reader Comments (16)

for me i take screenshot when a character or monster freeze in strange pose especially when under terror moves in FFXI

The printscreen button usually.

@Mendus

Yep, exactly what I wanted to say. :D Seriously though, the Screenshot button in games should be an industry-agreed upon key that never changes. Currently, Screenshot keys are like saved game folders - in a different place every time. One dedicated key for taking shots that are stored in a logical place, i.e. with save games and/or user pref files, would be brilliant. This BS about using ht PrtScn key and then having to remember to tab out and dump it in Paint - is BS!

Landscapes and funny events. Love the screenshot above :)

I like doing group poses. get a guild group or a raid group together into one picture and do something goofy or just show off our armor or something. i also like to take my character into really cool scenery like from a mountain top or in a lake with a massive tree behind me. i guess i like to think of myself as a nature photographer when it comes to screen shots :)

Do boobies count?

Interesting locales. In-action screenshots are hard, the animations are too quick and spell effects can obscure whatever you want to take a picture of but with time and trial and error you can get what you want.

I also like taking snapshots of my characters while they're on vacation and seeing the sights. And I have a folder full of screenshots of my warcraft dwarf flying around on his helicopter.

memories with composition good enough that I can make a good sig out of it.

In City of Heroes I managed to snap a screenshot at exactly the right time my main character first hit 50. There's a special leveling animation for that one.

look at how the sky looks, the games graphics can always be good or bad depending on how much time they spent on the sky

If the game has day/night cycle then i choose to make the shot in daytime and with the sun in back so all has max light.

If I want a screenshot from combat or other fast animation i often make a video and pick the screenshot from one of the many frames.

Juxtapositioning.

For me the background must be unique for the sake of the theme, could be a mountainous terrain or just a weird-looking house

Clipping is my major problem, when I take screenshot I have to assure that it must contain close to zero model clipping, ex: having half of the shield buried in your back is a big no no =)) =))

I never gave much emphasis on character's positioning or 'in-action' pose as long it doesn't give a major disruption to the surrounding backgrounds, whenever I want to see my character combating poses I usually just take a video

I usually just take generic "pretty" screenshots. This tends to result in static pictures of my character standing idle with a nice background. Occasionally if I feel inspired I do try to set up action/pose screenshots.

Interesting backgrounds/locations.
Significant victories (a shot of the body, etc).
Reaching the level cap (when I remember and have fast fingers).

I normally screenshot anything I want to record as a memory of playing that game.

Usually a fantastic landscape or background, I take the time to compose nicely. The scenery's not going to run away. Turn off the UI, experiment with different angles, putting the thing I want to capture in the centre or at dramatic thirds, have the character avatar standing there with different emoted poses or zoom the camera so it's not visible at all.

Combat, action, anything fast paced, anything goes. I just hammer the screenshot button whenever possible and grab whatever. Sometimes you get lucky and get an action shot that looks phenomenal.

Basically, I tend to capture a bunch of experimental shots and go back to pick the nicest one later.

The Daily Grind: What do you look for when taking screenshots?

Reader Comments (16)

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 8:08AM alzeer said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 8:09AM Mendus said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 9:15AM pcgneurotic said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 9:13AM Carolina said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 9:58AM Rum said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 10:39AM Vinzix said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 11:10AM Mikx said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 11:30AM dajones said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 11:42AM JonBuck said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 1:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 2:22PM Wurm said

Posted: Feb 19th 2012 5:50PM real65rcncom said

Posted: Feb 20th 2012 12:47AM Thefoxkit said

Posted: Feb 20th 2012 4:42AM Lumin said

Posted: Feb 20th 2012 1:04PM StClair said

Posted: Feb 22nd 2012 8:48AM Jeromai said

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