Star Wars Cosplay Photo Shoot

On December 6, I participated in Star Wars Cosplay Photo Shoot hosted by the DC Cosplay Group at the National Building Museum, which is a great location to shoot in, due to its grandeur. The meet up consisted of several cosplayers and photographers. The rules for the shoot were simple no blasters inside the museum, but light sabers were ok, and photographers could not use light stands or umbrellas. Thus, this meet up was perfect for photographers practicing for Katsucon.

At the shoot, I used a Cannon 70D with an 18 - 200mm lens and an external 600EX-RT on a stick held by my assistant, who is also my husband. Using an off camera flash, was good because it allowed me to get different angles of light. I took over 200 photos, however only kept 136 photos mostly because several were repeats poses. My camera was set ISO 400 with an f/8 aperture, which is the sweet spot form my lens. My shutter speed varied between 1/20s to 1/200s, with the most common speed being 1/20s and 1/60s. My focal length ranged between 28mm to 111mm with the most common being 28mm and 32mm.

I did post process several of the photos in Lightroom and then brought them in Photoshop CC to fix the color of the light sabers. I fixed the light sabers either by using internal glow or by adjusting the vibrancy and saturation. For several of the photos, especially of Sith Lords I went dark and moody, while for the light side of the Force I went warmer with more golden tones. The golden tones were very complementary to the building because it has several large rich golden marble columns in the main atrium of the building. Overall, I am very happy with these photos.

You can see all the photos from the shoot here: Star Wars Photo Shoot.

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