Spider-Man: Miles Morales Photo Mode guide and new features

Channel your inner Peter Parker.

Jim Hargreaves 11/11/20 Comments Closed

Marvel’s Spider-Man was by no means the first game to get a fully integrated photo mode though definitely helped it become a standard, almost mandatory, feature for PlayStation exclusive titles.

Those stunning visuals, combined with Spidey’s silky smooth moves, had players and comic book fans hammering away at the Share button on their DualShock 4 controllers, bombarding social media and message boards with their favourite in-game shots.

Insomniac Games would lean into this further with more photo mode options down the line. Naturally, photo mode makes a return here in Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and comes tagged with some great bonus features.

A quick tip before we get started: even if you aren’t constantly taking screenshots, it’s worth mapping photo mode to one of the two shortcut buttons (left and right on the d-pad). This can be done in the settings menu and saves you having to pause the game then selecting photo mode manually each time you need to use it.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales ticks off all those essential features when it comes to having smooth camera controls and advanced sliders for field of view, focus, and aperture. As we mentioned in our photo mode guide for The Last of Us: Part II, it would be great to see more developers include an auto-focus tool similar to that in Days Gone.

That said, being able to add light sources in Spider-Man: Miles Morales elevates this to photo mode 2.0, giving you an excellent, easy to use tool to perfect your virtual photography.

Here’s how it works: you can add three light sources to any scene and these can either be spheres or spotlights. As their names suggest, spheres give off a glow in all directions while spotlights give you a focused cone of light. Both have advanced options such as being able to adjust their hue and vibrancy, allowing you to be as subtle or abstract as you want.

Once selected, you can change the position and angle of your light sources – however, while doing so you won’t be able to zoom or rotate your view of the scene. Getting the hang of how to use lighting can be finicky at first but is essential for capturing those truly spectacular shots.

Another handy feature worth mentioning is being able to swap costumes while in the photo mode menu. Again, it’s a simple touch though certainly a game changer when it comes to experimenting with different environments and times of day, dressing Miles up for exactly the right occasion.

Once you’ve aligned and adjusted your shot, you can then fiddle with effects and frames, as well as stickers. We can’t wait to see what the game’s community comes up with when Spider-Man: Miles Morales hits PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on November 12th.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

Written by

Jim Hargreaves

Senior Editor bursting with lukewarm takes and useless gaming trivia. May as well surgically attach my DualSense at this point.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales Guides & more from TheSixthAxis

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