DCC First Anniversary

Cosplayer Group Photo (Focal Length 24mm, Aperture F11, Shutter 1/60s)

I started the Dayton-Columbus-Cincinnati Cosplay Photo Shoot Group (DCC) on Facebook in April 2018 and held the first group shoot in June 2018. Over the past 12 months it has been a significant amount of work, but the group has grown from 10 people (5 cosplayers, 4 photographers and 1 assistant) attending the very first shoot in Dayton to 34 people attending the first anniversary shoot held on June 23, 2019.

The anniversary shoot was held at Eastwood Metro Park in Dayton and was an open themed event. The location had several places to shoot at to include stone bridges, iron bridges, nice grass areas, and several water features. We had 22 cosplayers come out to the event so there was going to be no way I could work with all of them. I ended up working with about half of them, because 4 of them were a group cosplay. I shot 274 frames, edited 168, and posted 100 final photos. I forgot my light stand for this meet up so shot the whole event with one flash on its little foot stand angled up from the ground. In some cases, it worked very well. I shot using ISO 100. My aperture varied from f4.5 to f11 with the most common aperture being f8 followed by f4.5. My shutter speed varied from 1/60s to 1/640s with the most common speed being 1/160s. Finally, my focal length varied from 18mm to 80mm, with the most common focal length being 18mm.

My favorite two shots from the meet up are of Kamikaze Kendra as punk Thor. Most cosplay images are in bright vivid color to show off the costume and detail. However, I took a different approach and made the image black and white to capture the punk nature of the cosplay. Turning the image to black and white gives it a gritty edge that is found in several punk photos. I believe the edit also brings out the persona that the cosplayer was trying to portray.

Focal Length 32mm, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/200s

Focal Length 50mm, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/200s

All the cosplayers were great that day. You can see all my final images from the event here.

If you want to participate in these great events please join our Facebook Group: Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati (DCC) Cosplay Photo Shoots. You can also see some behind the scenes images on our Instagram page: DCC Cosplay Photoshoots

Comments

The Pumpkin Barron

On October 12th, I had the pleasure of working with the marvelous SunnyRae . The general theme for the shoot was pumpkins but with coordination on outfits with SunnyRae theme evolved into official portraits of an 18 th century Pumpkin Baron. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 Westcott Strobe 1 rectangular soft box 1 strip box 1 6x6 silver reflector 2 C-stands 1 light stand Boom arm Color checker clamps Sandbags Backdrop stand Rough canvas backdrop Pumpkins Rough canvas drop cloth Flowers Old trunk Books Letters Wooden crate Fake leaves Chair Tri-level plant stand The set up I wanted to keep this set up a bit rustic yet give the feel of staged aristocratic painting of the time. I started with a plain rough canvas backdrop then placed an ol...

Night Queen

On September 28th, I did a session with May. This session’s theme was designed around a Halloween headpiece I made a couple of years ago but never got to shoot. The vibe of the overall shoot was dark queen. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 2 rectangular soft boxes grids 2 C-stands Sandbags Backdrop stand Fuzzy grey backdrop Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps 2 trilevel plant stands Fake candles Goblets Fake flowers Black fabric Silver fabric Large Styrofoam block Dowel Rods Skulls Fake moss Dry ice The set up I tried to keep this setup simple in nature. I started with the base of a fuzzy grey backdrop to which I added a “throne” made from a large Styrofoam block, some dowel rods, and a piece of black fabric. To that I added two flower pot hol...

Belle Island with Central VA Cosplayers

On October 19 th I drove down to Richmond, VA to attend a Central VA Cosplay Photoshoot meetup on October 20 th at Belle Island. I wanted to go to this event because it was in an interesting location, and I wanted to meet some new cosplayers. For this session I used: Canon R6 2 Speed light Trigger 1 Light stands 24 - 105mm lens Gels Camera Settings: For this shoot, I was transitioning back and forth between being inside an old, dark, abandoned building to bright, sunny woods. Due to the transitions, my settings varied greatly. I mostly shot at ISO 100 except for when I accidently bumped the nob to “Auto” and didn’t notice, so I also took shots at ISO 2500, 3200, 4000, and 6400. The shots at the high ISO actually look fairly decent, and not as grainy as one would expect. My shutter varied between 1/100s to 1/250s with the most common shutter speed being 1/250s. My aperture varied between F5 to F11 with the most common ap...

The Munchkin's Notebook

Search This Blog