Digital image from Red Dead Redemption 2 wins Virtual Photographer of the Year

Virtual Photographer of the Year competition hosted at London Gaming Festival announces winners and hosted exhibition at Trafalgar Square

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Image credit: Joe Menzies / London Gaming Festival / NVIDIA)

The London Games Festival exists to celebrate video game culture in all its forms, and this year hosted an exhibition of virtual in-game photography that was held in Trafalgar Square, showcasing global artists whom have captured and enhanced video game images, bringing them to life.

A competition and challenge was launched for professionals and aspiring creators to capture the most striking images taken from within a video game. The first ever Virtual Photography Challenge was won by an entry submitted showcasing a beautiful landscape from award winning game Red Dead Redemption 2.

The competition was sponsored by NVIDIA Studio and celebrates the growing community and practice of virtual photography. This artistry allows creators to apply photo mode and concepts of shooting a manual camera with control over settings such as ISO and depth of field to capture evocative, impressive or thought-provoking photos within the virtual spaces of some of the most aesthetically impressive award-winning video games.

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Aside from winning the competition, Menzies took home an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti-powered Studio laptop, courtesy of sponsors NVIDIA and retail partners, Scan Computers, worth over £3000 ($3,907 / AU$5,250). The laptop is specifically designed to empower visual artists with the latest cutting-edge GPU technology and advanced drivers that are able to unlock the potential of advanced creative apps.

Three categories were open for participants to enter; landscape, portrait and abstract, where images could be captured from any video game with a focus on the environments as well as characters, played using any platform or console. Some of the most highly commended shots were captured by photographers in games such as Ghosts of Tsushima, Batman: Arkham Knight, Cyberpunk and the recently released, Elden Ring.

Post-production work on the digital images was permitted but not essential, though was used frequently across most entries, including the winning shot, to bring out the vivid red and orange hues from the striking desert image. Entries were critiqued across an array of skills, awarding submissions that were evocative, aesthetically impressive and proven technical awareness where using post-production tools.

Averkin shared that: “The NVIDIA Studio platform was made to offer artists a suite of tools and the best possible performance in top creative apps to help enhance their work, so being part of a competition showcasing an array of virtual photography has been very exciting. The standard of entries was very high and they all did a fantastic job of not just capturing stunning images, but applying real knowledge around how post-production can bring a photo to life. We hope everyone enjoys seeing them as much as we did judging them.’’

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A staff writer for Digital Camera World, Beth has an extensive background in various elements of technology with five years of experience working as a tester and sales assistant for CeX. After completing a degree in Music Journalism, followed by obtaining a Master's degree in Photography awarded by the University of Brighton, she spends her time outside of DCW as a freelance photographer specialising in live music events and band press shots under the alias 'bethshootsbands'.

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