Hello gamers! My name is SirCazzM, but you can just call me Cazz. First off, let me say it’s been an absolute honor connecting with so many talented and cool people in this niche little corner of the gaming universe. Honestly, you all inspire me daily with your creativity and dedication. Every time I see your work, it lights a fire under me to keep dreaming up new ideas and stay involved. So, props to you all—keep being awesome!
I’ve been a PC gamer for as long as I can remember—probably since around 2008. I didn’t even have my own Steam account until 2011 (a glorious birthday gift), and before that, I was the ultimate freeloader, borrowing my cousin’s account to grind Counter-Strike: Source and dabble in random Half-Life 2 mods. These days, I spend most of my time sweating it out in Rainbow Six Siege and other hardcore FPS games. But when the MMR grind inevitably makes me question my life choices, screen-archery is my much-needed therapy.

Honestly, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment I fell into this hobby. Back in the day I had an ancient Gateway office PC Frankensteined together with hand-me-down GPUs every other year (GTX 650, 760, and finally a 970). My introduction to PC gaming glory came when someone handed me a copy of Mirror’s Edge and Battlefield 3. I was blown away by how beautiful they looked—even while my machine churned out 20 frames per second like it was trying to power a lightbulb. Battlefield 3 was so demanding on my rig that I once fried my power supply from playing it nonstop. Totally worth it.

Eventually, I discovered Skyrim and the modding scene—a slippery slope if there ever was one. I found myself gawking at screenshots on Nexus Mods of games transformed into near-photorealistic masterpieces, with ENBs, lush grass mods, and 4K parallax textures that made Skyrim look less like Whiterun and more like The Elder Scrolls 6. Naturally, I wanted in. But my trusty GTX 650 just simply wasn’t up to the task. Thus began my endless pursuit of hardware upgrades to keep up with the latest ENB presets,4k armor set replacers, and HDT-SMP related physics mods (if you know, you know).

Over time, my reasons for taking screenshots have definitely evolved, often depending on the game or the era. Sometimes, it’s just about showing off—how sexy or visually stunning I can make something (or someone) look. Other times, it’s about capturing a moment that evokes a particular emotion in others, just as it does in me—though, honestly, I’m not even sure I can do that intentionally half the time. Fundamentally, I believe screenshotting, like art, is a powerful form of self-expression and a reflection of gaming’s ongoing evolution into a mainstream entertainment medium. The key difference is that video games provide a universal canvas, offering everyone the tools to express their creativity through screenshots, without requiring natural talent with a brush or pen. It’s an accessible way for anyone to capture the beauty of a moment and connect with a broader community, sharing in the collective experiences that make gaming so unique and impactful.

Here’s a collection of some screenshots that I’ve taken over my Journey.

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3006784342

A lot of my earlier shots are taken in portrait mode to convey the illusion of being a higher resolution image that was cropped stylistically. This skyrim shot that I took in game required me to turn the in-game camera 90 degrees, whilst tweaking the Depth of Field values that came with the ENB overlay that I was using. After a few minutes of neck pain and careful tweaking I took the shot, and I think it came out quite nice. No post-processing was involved,
other than flipping the image back to being upright.

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2998176942

Here’s a Night shot that I took also in Skyrim, same portrait mode style and all. I wasn’t a huge fan of how overly bright and exaggeratedly colorful the default night sky in Skyrim looked, so I opted to look for a mod that would make it look more reaslistic. Eventually I found a 4k NightSky texture replacer, and combined that with another lighting mod known as ELFX, and a super demanding ENB known as Bjorn’s ENB—which would overhaul the general lighting in the game, removing unnecessary bright spots, and making the nights intimidatingly dark. (If you’ve used it, you know how dark that shit is). The combination of these two mods allowed for this lighting composition to be made. A dark treeline in some wild untouched part of the reach, silhouetted only by the dim presence of the galaxy.

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2995489470

Here’s a closeup shot of my character from my first playthrough, wearing some Mage-esque garb. This shot also utilized Bjorn’s ENB, which meant really dark darks, and really bright brights—meaning that Ideal lighting conditions for shots were usually either at Dusk or Dawn. I was just traveling through the forest surrounding Lake Ilinalta and was impressed at the God Rays and the high res shadows that would pierce through the trees canopies. This shot was incredibly hard on my pc to say the least. We’re talking about a shot that was taken with the most demanding ENB on the nexus,(at the time of) combined with a 2k resolution outfit that had HDT-SMP Jiggle Physics, and a hairstyle that also had HDT physics activated, along with a 4k Flora overhaul to the trees and surrounding grass. Frames were not high.

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2997107035

Another shot utilizing Bjorn. The color palette is probably more apparent now. I’m rocking the HDT Inquisitor armor to sort of create this ‘badass vampire hunter’ character vibe. Something like a genderbend Van Helsing. I actually used this armor throughout the majority of my playthrough. As far as the shot itself goes, it’s the same methodology really. Shadows and offset lighting in the dusk/dawn just make for really cool shots. Need I say more?

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3344085043

The vast majority of my screenshots now are probably going to be in Cyberpunk 2077. I recently started shooting in this game earlier this year with a lot of guidance and inspiration from users in the community such as Lodoss and Subleader—both of whose works are extremely impressive and I highly recommend you check them out if you’re starting out in screen-archery, especially in Cyberpunk. Since the advent of Path-Tracing, and a super talented modding community, Cyberpunk 2077 is the most realistic looking video game in the current market, bar none. Only a handful of games currently utilize Path-Tracing architecture at the moment, but in my personal opinion the neon draped horizon and bustling streets of Night City uses this tech to its utmost potential. Because of this I began to transition to more realistic shots—to create something evocative of cinema, and hopefully something to bridge that gap between Raster and CG. Although PT does a majority of the work when it comes to realistic lighting, there’s a few supplemental mods on the nexus that also aid in helping create the perfect lighting/color palette. Different LUTs exist to adjust certain color hues and remove the yellowish/green haze that the default game comes with. Other mods like Cyberlit or Charlight are also indispensable as they allow the user to create artificial lights in scenes or areas where the natural light doesn’t suffice. In the above screenshot I was very lucky as the busy intersection that my character was in, provided sufficient offset lighting and allowed me to achieve what I was going for.

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3353379599

This next shot is probably one of my most personal favorites. I had been using reshade for a while and it wasn’t until this and a few other experimental shots that I had managed to nail the DOF effect that I was trying to achieve. That on top of some very precise character placement, and a very specific time of day to achieve the intended lighting effect, along with some photography fundamentals such as rule of thirds. As aforementioned, a lot of my horizontal based Cyberpunk shots are sorta meant to create like this movie frame effect. I could cite a lot of references, but some youtube channels I frequently watch include “Thomas Flight”, and “Amazing Shots”, which are pretty inspiring for getting me in the correct headspace for what I want to achieve.

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3345657829

Another one of my favorites is this action shot that I created, which I titled “Blue eye Samurai”, based on the netflix show. The shot includes V engaging in some close quarters combat with some random assailants whilst wielding Vergil’s Katana from DMC 5. I was rather proud of this shot because it’s one of the only shots that I created for a modder to showcase on their nexus page. In post I added some blood splatter effects in photoshop to really add to the ferocity and violence I intended to imitate. This scene also required me to use AMM, which is a mod that allows you to place multiple characters, props, effects, and adjust things such as the weather and time of day. It is a fundamental mod all Cyberpunk screenshotters frequently utilize.

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3372601618

As I said earlier, I do play a lot of FPS games, such as Escape From Tarkov, so creating shots that include tactical gear, or guns and stuff is honestly my cup of tea. As a result, I aptly named this shot ‘Escape from Dogtown’. This does include some custom clothing mods and assets, such as the helmet and the Night Vision goggles—of which there are plentiful of on Nexus mods.

https://steamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3377741078

This above shot was accomplished by setting the time of day to 18:00 and adding an emissive ‘citylight’ cube above V, to give the illusion of a ceiling light causing the light dispersion. I think it came out quite nicely, and is probably the most realistic shot I’ve created to date? Path tracing really does work wonders. And so does sex appeal. (IYKYK)

I could discuss my approach to crafting the perfect scene or shot, covering aspects like color theory, contrasting imagery, clipping, primary and secondary light sources, and depth of field. However, that would be quite a lengthy discourse, and there are likely others more qualified to delve into these topics, and I’m honestly just an amateur that’s still learning new things as I go. I’m sure that there’s a deep compelling reason as to why I take my shots the way I do, and maybe one day I’ll be wise enough to figure it out.

In conclusion, thank you guys for taking the time to read this page, and mostly thank you guys for continuing to inspire me to do what I do, and supporting me throughout the year. SirCazzM