I don’t trust my photographic instincts, and my life doesn’t always afford me the time to go out and hone them and experiment with my camera. If you have a similar problem, I may have found a way around all this. It requires nothing more than sitting in your living room holding a video game controller. It’s a game called Lushfoil Photography Sim, and it’s like a set of training wheels for your camera.
How does it help?
My intention with the OuttaFocus column has always been to demonstrate how mobile device cameras of all types can inspire creativity, and my own journey to try and get better at taking photos. Not in a professional sense, but for personal satisfaction. I’ve always hoped it would also inspire you, the reader, to try new features, devices, or apps too. I know this is a game and not a camera or a phone, but you’ll be as surprised as I was as to how well Lushfoil fulfills my aim.
Over the years I’ve taken photos, the more I experimented and explored, the more I ran into certain problems I found extremely hard to overcome. I’ve written about this already, particularly when I was tasked with photographing a car for a series of articles. I find it really hard to “see” the photographs I know are there, get stuck on taking the “right” picture, and then not taking any of note at all. Eventually, I got past this (most of the time) and understood there is no right or wrong way to take a photo, but the revelation came only after talking to an experienced automotive photographer about it.
But putting everything I’ve learned into practice isn’t always easy, and if you don’t practice very often, it takes a while for all the things you’ve learned to come back once you start again. Then there’s the problem of where to take photos. If you’re not visiting somewhere new and exciting, it can be difficult to spot new photo opportunities in familiar areas. Lushfoil Photography Sim is a brilliant way to avoid almost all this, and train your eye to see those elusive photo opportunities out in the real world.
What makes it useful?
Lushfoil Photography Sim places you in some of the most picturesque and beautifully evocative places in the world, and leaves you free to walk around equipped only with a camera and your own keen photographic senses. There’s no extensive in-game guidance on what to shoot or where, there are only the most basic of quests, and only a vague path to follow in each location. There’s freedom to climb rocks, hike up the side of a mountain, deal with different weather conditions, and take absolutely any photo you want.
It nails the excitement of being in a new place where a great photo lies around every corner, and this is where the game worked for me as a training tool. I knew a photo was “there,” I just had to find it — which is exactly the problem I run into in the real world — and the more I spot them, the better I get at finding similar chances again. In Lushfoil Photography Sim, you are encouraged to take your time, and it does a great job of invoking the same emotions you get taking photos with a real camera in a real environment, but because it’s not real, you can slow down, look around, and try new things, all without life’s pressures.
The accuracy of Lushfoil’s environments and the way it feels like a real photography walk is only the start. It equips you with a DSLR camera (there are other camera types to find in the game too) complete with a manual Pro mode, where you can change the aperture, white balance, exposure, and focus to capture your perfect shot. The alterations you make are recreated on screen, which makes it ideal for newcomers to learn how these settings change your photos. Almost all high-end smartphone cameras have a Pro mode, and Lushfoil Photography Sim introduces you to it in an easy to learn way, where you can endlessly experiment at home.
More than a game?
Is Lushfoil Photography Sim a game? A simulation? A training tool? A calming way to relax after a long day? It’s all these things, and it cleverly blends enjoyable, relaxing gameplay with minimal pressure to “complete” anything, while at the same time helping you hone your own photography skills ready to put them to use when you next go out with your real camera in your hand.
It takes what can be impenetrable photo-speak and tools and turns them into more simple concepts controlled not with buttons and knobs on a piece of hardware, but with a familiar controller. It makes the intricacies of photography accessible to the newcomer, removing the hassle of learning not only a new skill, but new controls and hardware too. Pro modes on smartphones are often ignored because they’re presented without any guidance. Lushfoil Photography Sim gives you the guidance that’s missing from them, and gives you amazing locations to experiment, practice, and improve.
The Pro mode and manual adjustments, along with the helpful tutorials, aren’t what kept me playing the game. It has been the environments and the ability to experiment with angles, viewpoints, focus and depth of field in new places that kept me engaged. I got the same satisfaction from taking a photo I was pleased with in the game as I do in real life, and loved the way it made me look so closely at the location to find something new. It’s the practice I need to become a better photographer, in locations filled with opportunity, available at any time.
I played Lushfoil Photography Sim on the Sony PlayStation 5, and it’s available now for $15. It’s also available for Xbox and PC through the Steam store.
