Fall Cosplay Meet Up

ISO 400, Aperture F9, Shutter 1/250s,  Focal Length 18mm

On November 10  I hosted a meet up of the Dayton-Columbus-Cincinnati Cosplay Photoshoot group at the Maple-Beech Lodge in Blacklick Woods Park which is part of the Columbus Metro Park system.  This event was the last event of the year and included a small basic posing workshop.   We had 6 cosplayers, 6 photographers, and 2 assistants attend, so the cosplayer to photographer ratio was relatively good.  I gave the short posing brief.  After the brief I had each coplayer come up pose for two photos, the first with no guidance on posing then the second with guidance after seeing how the first shot looked.  I used a tethered shooting method so  each cosplayer could immediately  see how they looked in the photos so they could adjust based on what they learned and group suggestions.  After the meet up, I provided each cosplayer with “contact sheet”  of each of their images from the workshop portion of the shoot so they would have it for future reference. Involving all members of the group in the discussion and having live feedback, I think helped the group in general, allowed the people to become comfortable with one another, and made for a better overall shoot.

I worked with 6 cosplayers.  I shot a total of  271 frames which includes the posing workshop frames. Of the 271 frames, 244 where from the actual shoot,  of which I edited 130 images and delivered 67 final images not including the posing workshop images.  Since I shot during both the posing workshop and the actual shoot, I had two different set ups.  During the posing workshop,  I set up a plain white backdrop, used a single bare off camera speed light on a light stand,  and had my camera tethered to a lap top which was hooked to a projector to show the image on projection screen.  All images shot during the workshop were at ISO 400, an aperture of f/8, a shutter speed of 1/160s, a focal length of 18mm.  For my second set up, during the actual shoot portion,  I used single bare off camera speed light on a light stand.   I used an ISO of 400 due to the daylight conditions and the consistently changing cloud cover.  My aperture and shutter speed varied throughout the shoot, due to the changing lighting conditions due to the moving clouds and transitioning from indoor to outdoors.  My aperture ranged between F3.5 and F14 with the most common being F9.  My shutter speed varied from 1/125s to 1/800s with the most common speed being /250s.  It should be noted the standard flash sync speed is 1/250s but I can push the sync speed if I switch to high-speed sync. Finally, my focal length varied from 18mm to 90mm, with the most common focal length being 18mm.   As unusual I like to shoot wide.

The park is nice with lots of trees and a pond, I was kind of sad that we missed a lot of the fall leaves, due to a windstorm coming through an knocking a bunch of them off the trees.  Also, right outside the lodge that was rented for the event were two large green stone turtles.  I used these stone turtles as inspiration for several of my shots.  It worked perfectly for two cosplays.  The first was IzzyQuinnzilla as Bow-Peep from Toy Story 4.   It was perfect cosplay representing a toy on a whimsical turtle for kids.  My personal favorite shot is her going lifeless, like the toys in the movie do when a kid is around, on top of the turtle. The second image is of Fishmeal (formally Gleume) cosplay as Royal Guard Zelda riding the turtle into battle. What makes this photo is that she has a very serious look on her face, while riding a turtle.  Usually one would ride a noble steed, but since none were available at the time, the turtle had to work.

ISO 400, Aperture F11, Shutter 1/250s,  Focal Length 18mm

ISO 400, Aperture F9, Shutter 1/160s,  Focal Length 18mm

Overall this was a good meet up, you can see all my final images from the meet up here: Maple-Beech Lodge.  The group will start meet ups again in January, since we take a break in December due to holidays.