Ghost of Yotei Photo Mode Top Tips

Mik Bromley
Nov 2
7 min read

ℹ️ - Ghost of Yotei Top Tips

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Platform: PS5

Initial Release: 2nd October 2025

Digital copy provided for PS5 by Sony Interactive Entertainment

Ghost of Yōtei's enticing open world has plenty of things to draw your attention. Every fox den, bamboo strike, and sumi-e painting is like a siren's call, tempting you away from the mission, but none can steal quite as much of your time as the photo mode.

With its breathtaking environments, purposeful combat, and meticulously designed armour sets, the game just begs to be captured. All the more reason to sharpen up your photography skills then with these Ghost of Yōtei photo mode top tips.

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Getting into the photo mode is easy enough thanks to a D-pad shortcut – assuming that it's not disabled in the game settings at least – but there are a couple of scenarios where that is unavailable. At a camp for example, the D-pad is used to move through the on-screen actions, so R1 takes over as the button for accessing the photo mode.

Drawing a bow similarly overrides the default shortcut button with the weapon selection wheel. To get any photos using the bow, it's necessary to head into the Gameplay Settings to activate the Photo Mode Archery option. With this enabled, it is at least possible to use the photo mode once the bow string is fully drawn.

Infinite Camera Range

The camera range in this photo mode is modest at best and often doesn't pull back far enough for the shot you want, though there is a glitch to overcome it. The photo mode can be made to retain all settings, including camera position, and you can take advantage of this to gain virtually infinite camera range.

Simply enter the photo mode and move the camera to the limit of its range. Now exit and re-enter without moving the character: notice how the camera is where you left it, only now it can move a tiny bit further away. Repeat this several times, moving the camera to its limit each time, and it will eventually break free.

This is great for those journey-like wide shots or just to get more compositional freedom. It's even possible to reposition Atsu between exiting and re-entering, just as long as she ends up roughly on the same starting position, otherwise everything will be reset and you'll have to start again.

Restore a Composition

If you find yourself unsure which angle is best for a shot, this one's for you. While the camera's Tracking Shot feature is intended for short motion sequences, it can also be used to temporarily save a number of camera positions and setups for comparison.

Just press X on the tracking shot to save the current setup, then freely make changes while safe in the knowledge that you can swap back if it doesn't work out. You can have up to 16 compositions to flick between, just remember to reset the tracking shot when you come to screenshot the final choice. If not, it will set off in motion when trying to hide the UI.

Camera Setup

The range of camera settings gives plenty of control over the optical characteristics of a shot and choosing wisely can really aid a composition. A wide-angle lens is not only useful for squeezing more into the frame, but the perspective distortion offered by short focal lengths might also add a sense of dynamism to combat shots. Longer focal lengths meanwhile narrow the field of view, helping to isolate the subject and remove surrounding distractions.

Similarly, a wide aperture – set with a low f-number – gives a shallow depth of field while manual focus on the subject will help to lead the viewer's eye to the intended area of interest. Combining these will naturally strengthen a composition with a more photographic look that will also help to communicate any story it has to tell.

Precise Focus

When focusing any camera, it's really important to get it in the right place and that is especially true in Ghost of Yōtei. The auto-focus function is handy for locking onto Atsu while the camera moves around, but it is inherently imperfect. That's because the focus locks onto the centreline of the character model, meaning that the face, eyes, or even clothing textures might actually appear a little out of focus.

The manual focus offers much more control and is usually worth adjusting slightly to correct the auto-focus before capturing the final image, or simply to place the focus on something other than the character. With minimum steps of 10 cm, I also recommend using dolly focus by moving the camera backwards or forwards a small amount to fine tune the point of manual focus.

Find the Light

Although there are no custom lights in this photo mode (not right now anyway) the game does have some beautiful lighting to take advantage of. You can travel around Ezo to find a forest during a misty morning or the clear sunshine of the mountain air, or you can just take control from within the photo mode.

The 24-hour time of day cycle includes a static nighttime moon, a sun that tracks across the sky, and golden colours at sunrise and sunset for a whole host of different lighting conditions. Changing the weather also dramatically alters the lighting as well as the mood of the sky and surrounding atmosphere. Even moving the cloud cover can reveal pockets of sunshine breaking through that sweep across the landscape.

Playing around with all of these options is a must if you want to find the best lighting effects and direction for your shot.

Capture Lightning

Maybe the most dramatic weather condition in Ghost of Yōtei is the thunderstorm with randomised lightning that can quite literally light up a shot. Trying to catch this with just good timing is possible but also a complete waste of time seeing as there's a much easier and guaranteed way to do it.

The lightning occurs as soon as the Thunder weather is selected, but only when the Animated Environment is turned on. With animation off, switch the weather condition to Thunder and then quickly toggle the animation on and off again to trigger a bolt of lightning in the sky.

I prefer to do this with a combination of ☐ and the D-pad for the quickest response. Something that you will no doubt have to repeat over and over until catching exactly the right pattern.

Particle Decoration

Another feature that uses the Animated Environment is the ability to add airborne particles from a selection that includes birds, embers, and a number of different leaves. These can complement a scene or even be used as a prominent feature of your image, but it's not only how they behave on the wind that matters.

Notice how leaves will fall to the ground and accumulate in a carpet of colour. These will stick around long enough to be a useful way to decorate your surroundings, even after dialling down the intensity so there are fewer in the air. Just don't wait too long as they do disappear.

Use the Wind

The guiding winds are a big part of the game and have a strong influence in the photo mode too. As well as bringing movement to the animation, the wind will affect the direction of things like smoke and flags, plus the hair and clothing of characters that can literally give a windswept look.

An extra use for this feature comes when the animation is disabled though. The wind speed and direction settings will still cause grass and tree branches to twist and bend, making it perfect for pruning distracting bits of foliage from the frame.

Get Clean

There are a few ways to remove things from Atsu's model for clean shots and one of them is by first getting dirty. By applying either of the Muddy or Bloody character textures and then removing them again, not only is the applied photo mode texture removed, but so is any dirt and blood spatter that got there during gameplay.

You can also conveniently hide any helmet and mask that Atsu might be wearing, and further de-accessorise by disabling the secondary weapon and musical instrument on her back. That one isn't in the photo mode itself though, so you'll need to set it in the main game display settings.

Be Idle

With no poses to make use of in the photo mode, every aspect of Atsu's posture comes down to the in-game animations. Walking, running, and fighting are obviously part of this, but remember to stand still for some more casual stances.

Common idle animations include Atsu turning her head slightly or resting her arms on those elegant sword grips, things that can easily be used to give a portrait a more relaxed feel. If you're lucky, you might even get a visit from a little feathered friend.

Cinematic Style

It can't have escaped your notice that Ghost of Yōtei leans heavily into a cinematic style for its general presentation in cutscenes and it's a style that can work just as well for static shots. Apply one of the 21:9 or 32:9 aspect ratios and adjust the focal length to give a greater sense of width across the shot before composing your cinematic frame.

A lot of movie-making techniques will work here including offset thirds, symmetry, leading lines, shallow depth of field, close shots, wide shots, and so on. The key thing though, is that the frame should communicate something so it's not just about making an image look cinematic but knowing what it is trying to show. For example, a partial shot might tell the story of what's happening in a more interesting way that a full top-to-bottom view that looks much more gamey.