Jamey Price - Forzatography Special

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In this one-off Forzatography special, real life professional motorsports photographer and Forza enthusiast Jamey Price, shows you how you can use the in-game camera in Forza Motorsport 5 to create your perfect shot and come close to replicating reality.

Jamey Price - Forzatography Special

Hopefully some of you will find Jamey’s tips useful when building up your Forzatopgraphy portfolio, and if any of you have some other hints/tips to improve your photos please post them in here and share them with the community!

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Reading and already bookmarked it two paragraphs in.

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Very, very good article. Informative and I took something from it.

Thanks!!

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Glad you enjoyed reading it and found it helpful! I added a couple of extra images to the article towards the end in case you missed them :slight_smile:

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Amazing article. Well done Jamie.

I taught photography in American high schools for ten years. You put together an entire years worth of education into a few paragraphs. I am very impressed. And your examples are stunning. I am going to suggest several of my non-racing friends that have asked me to help them become better photographers read this.

And I am going to branch out from all my use of Forza 5 in Free Play to experiment with the photo capability to be found here. I had no idea there is a camera in this game with all the control of the top line professional cameras. I assumed it would be just a point and shoot wanna be. Thanks for letting me know there is so much more here.

What fun!

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Awesome article. Thanks Jamey and Ian.

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Really great article! Thanks for sharing this, Jamey and Ian

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I definitely agree that Forza can make you a better photographer. I definitely see it as a very gimped System Camera (mirrorless camera if you need less jargon)

Effectively, Forza does a lot of the hard stuff for you. Panning, stabilization, ISO, etc. The most important feature Forza offers, even more important than supplying the subjects, is letting you choose your angle of attack.

There is simply no way of getting a shot 1 inch above the ground, 2 feet in front of a Ferrari going 200+mph in the middle of a race, in real life, and being able to post-process it… unless your camera and you both survive, which is unlikely.

Forza gives you Fantastic tools, with which to practice Framing, coloring, and finding flattering angles. It doesn’t stop there though.

We have a community, dedicated to improving photography, both in game and out. Banding together, (FTI for gratuitous backpat) to not only play the game, and take pictures on a Sunday morning, but also racing against each other, and talking about random things.

I blame much of my Photography addiction to Forza, not specifically because of the game itself, but by winning a contest in-game that Microsoft and Hyundai sponsored, I netted an actual DSLR, that was actually not junk, in comparison to my (now post craigslist offering) Fuji Pro DSLR circa 1995. I was able to understand alot about the camera ahead of time, because I already knew cameras.

My main focus when I got the award package, was HDR photography. I started it out using the Canon 50D that I won, and was getting mixed results. I found that using Forza, to practice HDR, was the absolute PERFECT setting. No camera shake, I could take 80 exposures if I really wanted to, and I could simply dial down the color in the game, take a bunch of pictures, and if I didn’t like the way they turned out, post processing, I just had to wheel back over to my 360 and take more pics… There was no asking the driver to “do that drift pass again” I am not Ken Block’s Photog.

Overall, At the Very least, Forza got me where I am today, which really isn’t anywhere in the photography world, which is just mildly inconvenient. I happily go to work, for 7 days, and then I am home for 7 days, and the only thing holding me back from getting out in the field and taking photos, is me… Thanks to Forza, I have the chance to keep a foot in the pool during the winter, make new friends, and above all else, drive my favorite cars… and take their pictures.

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That was an awesome read. Photo mode has become one of my favorite parts of the game, and I have had very little prior knowledge to any kind of photography. I’d like to think I took quite a bit away from that 5 minute read. Thanks!

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Fantastic article, thanks so much! Now to see if I can apply anything I’ve learned. :slight_smile:

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Excellent article I never took much interest in photography in forza in the early days but it was seeing the galleries on the forums and some of the awesome pictures that people had took that gave me the inspiration to have a go myself nice to see forzatography from a professionals point of view good read and lots of information and tips tagged for future reference,

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Jamey certainly has awesome photography skillz. Great article.

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Thanks Jamey and Helios for putting this together. As a budding photographer, I found the information entertaining and enlightening. The shots are exquisite. There is so much talent in the Forza community, this can only serve to enhance it further.

One thing I find amazing about Forzatography is its uniqueness as an art form. The way the shot is found, the use of video game race cars and tracks as subjects and backdrops, and of course the phot tool itself. There is just nothing else like it.

Thank you again for a story that captures the art form and speaks to the talent of our community.

Johniwanna

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u guys r makin me jealous.cant wait to get f5

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everything in here is spot-on in terms of how i attack a shot in forza. this is a great starting point for anybody getting into forzatography. very nice article, jamey and ian.

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Great guide, now I know how to take better photos in Forza 4!

gt: xi Berserker Lx
Unicorn: Nissan MINE’S R34

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I really appreciate the concise nature of this article. So much useful information combined with beautiful examples – ready to slow down and admire (or create!) my own fantastic shots.

Thanks for the wonderful post!

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Love the article, great job on the write up. As Lazarus mentioned, it is definitely a great starting point for anyone getting into forzatography.

Thank you! :slight_smile:

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Bookmarked. Thank you Jamey, Brian, Ian and T10 for writing and posting this extremely informative and useful article. With the graphics being so stunning in this game, I have, for the first time, tried my hand at making some cool images from the game. But I lacked understanding of photography principles. I’m certainly no Ansel Adams now that I’ve read the article, but I am more excited and encouraged than ever to spend hours playing around with photography in the game. And I’m sure that given the tips in this article I can produce much better images than I would have without it. So again, thank you.

On a side… I have several friends who have yet to switch from Forza 4 to Forza 5. They cite many reasons, lack of tracks, cars, etc, etc… But Forza 5 has become what Forza 4 wasn’t for me because of the many aspects of graphic improvement to the game. I spend lots of times just looking at my cars, playing with paint, and soon, playing with photography. Given how comparatively less detailed the imagery was in Forza 4, I wouldn’t have had any interest in doing this with that game. But you can’t explain that. You have to experience it. In fact this weekend I had a conversation with one of them who was saying that it was a minor improvement in graphics, from F4 to F5. Not having played both back to back, I can understand his confusion. But I’m going to send him some of Jamey’s photos from the game and ask him if this is “real or is it Memorex” (dating myself here…).

I expect that things will continue to improve in Forza in order to convert the hold-outs. But in the meantime, I’ll continue enjoying what the game has become. Thanks T10