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New Pokémon Snap Photo Tips, How to get High Scores

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The goal of New Pokémon Snap isn’t to “catch em all”, rather it’s to take the very best photos and get a high score. But the system that judges this can be a bit confusing. You’re graded on a number of criteria, but they aren’t fully explained and can sometimes feel a little arbitrary. So to help we have some photo tips for how to get high scores in New Pokémon Snap.

How to get High Scores for your Photos in New Pokémon Snap

Here’s the criteria that all of your New Pokémon Snap photos are judged by each time you submit them to Professor Mirror for scoring.

  • Pose
  • Size
  • Direction
  • Placement
  • Other Pokémon
  • Background

But what does each of these actually mean? Pose is a tough one, requiring the Pokémon to either be performing an action or interacting with something unique. This is like the famous Surfing Pikachu from the first game, where you used fruit to lure it close to the surfboard so it would hop on. So to improve your score here either try interacting with the Pokémon or watch for them to do something special and get a photo of that.

Size is easy, simply asking you to get the Pokémon as big in the fram as possible. Ignore the “rule of thirds” and other specil photography techniques here, just get as close as you can without cropping or blocking any parts of the Pokémon’s body and you should max this out.

Direction and Placement sort of go together in that they are measuring where and which way the Pokémon is facing. You want it to be looking at you and in the center of the frame. So again, ignore the methods you might use to craft intersting and picturesque photos, this is nature documentary work you’re doing and you just want to get the right details. Get close up, with the Pokémon facing you and in the center of the shot and these will also be big scores.

Other Pokémon and Background deal with things in the photo other than the focus Pokémon. If you can get other creatures or interesting elements like waterfalls and other action in the backgroun you’ll get more points here.

Keep all of this in mind when taking your pictures and that’s how to get high scores for your photos in New Pokémon Snap. Of course, that’s not the only measure, so if you want to know about 4 Star photos check this guide out as well.


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