DOF and particle effects are not an artform, no matter how much you like them.

Guy/gals, this isn't about the fidelity or how great the graphics are 'in game' this is about the freedom the user has to express himself with photo mode. There are a hell of a lot of pictures that are just screenshots, but then there are some that clearly express something personal to the user.

These two, for instance, shows craft and an understanding of photography but it has absolutely nothing to do with just a screenshot to show off the game. This is about composition:

Here is another that, again, has nothing to do with showing off the game. The 'photographer' clearly has intentions beyond trying to impress graphically:



Here's one the user actually titled 'Requiem' and again is clearly trying to accomplish something that goes beyond the game:



And here's a post from a Photographer on Gaf explaining some of the rules of photography so that people can improve:

Here are a few tips:

1. For composition, think of your screen as if it was divided into nine tiles. Like this:



Try to position the horizon or objects on the lines. This is the most basic composition advice for photography. It's called "Rule of Thirds". Also try to rotate the picture (while doing the "camera orientation, press L1/R1) to either get a perfectly horizontal background or a perfectly vertical object in the foreground. This can be quite hard if you're using a high FoV since the Photo Mode in infamous has no option for lens correction. Of course there are many different ways to compose your picture.

2. Understand how Anisotropic Filtering works. AF is used to sharpen the textures when you look at them with a very sharp angle. Textures will be sharpest when you look at them with an angle of 90 degrees, but that will seldom allow for a nice picture. For example when you move your camera to the ground to get a nice shot from below, you'll either want to blur out or focus the ground textures by adjusting the Depth of Field in Photo Mode.

3. To perfectly adjust your Depth of Field I recommend setting the Focal Length to a very, very low value (it's the "f + number" thingy in the DoF settings, by pressing L1/R1, for example "f3") and then use the left analog stick do place the focus on the object or the spot that you want to have as sharp as possible. After that you can press L1 or R1 again to perfectly adjust the DoF of the scene and the one object or the one spot will be perfectly focused. A nicely set Focal Length will sharpen textures no matter the viewing angle.

A new art form might be a bit of an overstatement, but an new trend for sure. Since we now have the option to easily share these, all games should have a photo mode from now on, and I'm sure many will follow suit.

I wouldn't say invented as I'm sure people have done the same before Infamous.

And GT and Forza but I don't remember others games with Photo Mode.

In other words, the Halo screens aren't in-game because they don't look like in-game to you.

No, because they didn't exists in the game at all... you can't play these scenes and I'm in doubt they exits in this way in the game.

Can you show to me a video playing this scene like the pic?

Now these inFAMOUS pics can be played by anybody... you can play the same scene/place any time.

After looking around, it seems this art form has been around for a while.

Just a few examples

http://deadendthrills.com/

http://enwandrews.tumblr.com/

http://virtualgeographic.tumblr.com/

http://notrl.tumblr.com/

http://vee-r.tumblr.com/

Ok.

I'm still very curious where those pics come from.

ON TOPIC: I'm sorry for going a little off topic so far. In terms of artistic photography, I have to say that the inFamous pics I've seen look a class apart. The Wind Waker pics above are cartoony and hence don't express the same nuanced artistry as the inFamous pics in the OP. The Halo pics looked unbelievable (literally), but if what Ethomaz said is true (i.e. it isn't readily accessible to the end user), then inFamous is defintely a major next step in the direction the OP has hinted.

You're right, but in my opinion it limits him.