Skip to main content

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. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cobwebs Everywhere

On October 7 th , I did a studio spooky session with Coralinx Cosplay .   The central theme of this shoot was a pretty goth girl who had a fondness for spiders and decorating with cobwebs, making it a perfect Halloween session.   Note: Cobwebs are defined as abandoned or old spiderwebs that have collected dust.   Many cobwebs are the result of comb-footed spider (i.e., black widows) that make irregularly shaped webs.   Spiderwebs are active structures built to catch prey.   (Source: Western Exterminator Company) For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Westcott FJ400 2 Phottix Strobes 2 strip boxes 2 rectangular soft boxes 2 c-stands 3 light stands Backdrop stand Black seamless 2 Westcott silicon gels Tether cable Laptop Laptop holder Sandbags A-clamps Spyder Color checker Fake cobwebs Table ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Katsucon 2025 Wrap - Up

Katsucon 2025 didn’t seem as crowded as 2024, but I still wasn’t feeling it.  Katsucon will always have a special place in my heart, but I think I’m just bored with it, from a creative perspective.   While I still love working with cosplayers the location itself no longer excites me and I’m tired of fighting the crowds.  If I return to Katsucon 2026 I think I’ll just set up a studio in my room and do studio sessions.  I can be a lot more creative with a studio session, and I get to use all my lights.  So now let's talk about photography.   For Katsucon I was shooting with my Canon R6 with an 24-105 Canon RF lens, and I had a fisheye lens on me as well, but we will discuss that later.  I had two speedlights, one on camera which acted as a trigger 90-percent of the time and one on a light stand which my husband would hold during shoots. This year I booked 11 cosplay sessions and shot 869 frames.  I shot a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO 800...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spooky in the Morning

On October 5 th , I did an on-location spooky session with Rebecca at Claude Moore Park.   The theme was Victorian ghost; however, it is hard to be a ghost at 9:30 in the morning on a bright sunny day.   I did my best to get a spooky look. For these sessions, I used: Photography Equipment Other Equipment Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Cannon Speed lights 1 30-inch umbrella Light stand Assistant Smoke Genie The setup The set up was relatively easy.  I mounted a Canon speed light on a light stand with an umbrella.  My assistant then held the light in the appropriate spots as we made our way around the park to different locations. Camera Settings This session was held outdoors in bright morning sun and was intended to look spooky, so I tried to keep the images dark.  Thus, I used ISO 100, which is great for sunny conditions.  I wanted to maintain a soft background as much a...
Post a Comment
Read more