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September Cosplay Meet-up

On September 27th, the first meet up of the DCC was held since the COVID pandemic started.  This group meet-up was limited to 10 people (5-cosplayers and 5-photographers) and was held in an Ohio county that was not red. COVID per cautions were taken to include having the event outdoors, keeping 6-feet apart, photographers wearing masks at all times, cosplayers wearing masks when not being photographed, and keeping session times to 15-minutes per photographer. All participants in the event understood their risks, and choose to participate in the meet-up.  

For this shoot I used:

  • Canon 80D
  • 2 Speed lights
  • Light stand

I shot 199 frames at ISO 100.  My aperture varied between F8 and F9. My shutter speed was on the high end, so I was in high speed sync for a good portion of the shoot.  My shutter speeds ranged from 1/125s to 1/400s, with a majority of the frames being shot at 1/200s.  My focal length varied from 18mm to 70mm, with most of the frames being shot at 18mm.  Of the 199 frames I edited 113 frames, and released 42 final images, which averaged about 8 final images per cosplayer.

My favorite image from the meet-up is of  ‘ashleynicole-draws’ as Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII.  The reason I like this image so much because I feel it aligns with the character and could be a scene from the game.  The sky works beautifully with the tall grass and the colors of the characters outfit pop against the two.  When shooting this I adjusted for the sky and had a flash my right to light the model.   Then when editing the image, I enhanced the sky slightly with a selective gradient, and added a touch more light to the model’s face. I fished up the image by adding a vignette to the image.  (ISO 100, Focal Length 18mm, Aperture F9, Shutter 1/200s)

(ISO 100, Focal Length 18mm, Aperture F9, Shutter 1/200s)

You can see all the final images from the meet-up here: Quarry - September

It was good that we had the meet up, while significantly smaller than the regular DCC meet-ups,  to have a little bit of normalcy in these interesting times. 

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