Horror at Noon

Two weeks ago, I participated in the DC Cosplay Photo Shoots Group meet up at Pierce Mill Park in DC.  The theme for this cosplay meet up was horror; however, the meet up was in the middle of the day on a bright sunshiny day.  Even though the sky was not conducive to getting those dark, creepy shots; however, the cosplayers were great and I made the location work for me to get the shots.

For this shoot, I was using a Cannon 70D with an 18-200 mm lens, and a 430EX II speedlight mounted on a painters poll triggered with a Young Nu radio trigger.  (Thank you to my husband who acted as my voice activated light stand) I did not use an umbrella, because I wanted hard, harsh light to get that creepy horror look.  Because it was such a bright day,  was using ISO 100,  and stopped down my aperture to F10, used varied my shutter speed based on the amount of light, and had my flash in high-speed sync mode.  I did vary my flash power, but was mostly ran it at ½ to ¼ power.

I had several favorite shots, but I’ll only discuss three. The first is the Jeckel/Hyde photo.  This photo was shot in the shade, at ISO 100, aperture F10, shutter 1/60s, focal length 20.00mm.  The flash was pointed up from the ground to the left of the model and was at ½ power.  On the original picture, I did basic edits to include adjusting colorcast, contrast, sharpness, correct camera distortion, and cropping.  I then used a few presets to darken the photo and added a square vignette.

Original

Final Jeckel/Hyde
Cosplayer: Lady O Cosplay

This photo I absolutely love, because it looks like a high fashion shot.  While the photo does not convey creepy horror, I feel it conveys classic gothic horror and high society.  While the cosplayer was doing a spider with fangs, I feel she is embodying a modern vampire and not one of those silly sparkly ones.  This photo was shot in the shade, at ISO 400, aperture F16, shutter 1/100s, focal length 20.00mm.  The flash was pointed down to the left of the model and was at ½ power.  On the original picture, I did basic edits to include adjusting colorcast, contrast, sharpness, correct camera distortion, and cropping.  I then used a few presets to darken the photo and added a square vignette. I also did a black and white version of the photo, but find I like the color one better.

Original

Final Image of Sophisticated Spider

Black & White Version

Finally, it would not be a cosplay horror shoot if there wasn’t someone cosplaying from Silent Hill. This photo was shot in the shade, at ISO 400, aperture F10, shutter 1/250s, focal length 20.00mm.  The flash was pointed up and to the left of the model and was at ½ power.  On the original picture, I did basic edits to include adjusting colorcast, contrast, sharpness, correct camera distortion, and cropping.  I then used a few presets to darken the photo and added a square vignette.  I also tried to give this photo a bit more of red/brown cast similar to what is seen in the video game.  For those who think there should be more blood to be Silent Hill, you can’t splatter fake blood around a park.

Original

Final Image of Nurse from Silent Hill
Cosplayer: DVS Cosplay

Overall, I’m happy with how these photos came out.  I’m happy I was able to capture the horror theme even though the setting was the complete opposite with a clear blue sky and bright sunshine.  You can see all the photos from the shoot here.  You can also follow my work on Facebook  here.