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DMV Cosplay Meet-Up

On July 25th, I attended my first D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots event in three years. It was nice to see some familiar faces, work the cosplayers in the DMV, and do some cosplay work again. This event was held at Mustang Sally’s in Chantilly, VA.  

For this event I used:

  • Canon 80D
  • 2 Speed light (1 acted as a trigger)
  • Light stand
  • Small Lumiquest square soft box
  • 18-200mm lens

This event was held at Mustang Sally’s which is a brewery in an industrial park and had a mix of both indoor and outdoor shooting possibilities. The indoor opportunities where basic brew pub with views of other buildings out the windows, while the outdoor possibilities were limited to parking lot and the grass divider with a run-off drain separating parking lots.  Both things of which I can work with.  

I shot using an ISO of 100.  My aperture, shutter, and focal length all varied based on the location I was shooting. My aperture ranged from f4.5 to f16 with the most common being f8.  My shutter speed ranged from 1/25s to 1/250s with the most common being 1/50s, which is rather slow considering I was using flash.  My focal lengths for where between 18mm - 50mm, with the most common focal length being 18mm.  In this situation it did not surprise me that my most common focal length was 18mm because of the close quarters inside the building, you really can’t go for the long  zoomed in shot.

I liked several of the images from the event, but four stand out to me. The first is of Gloria of Inthe Long Run Designs as Nightwing. This was shot outside in the rainwater run off channel.  To get this look I reduced ambient as much as possible, meaning I went down to F16 with a shutter speed of 1/125s. I then went back and filled with flash that I zoomed to somewhere between 50-70mm and pointed down towards her face as she was coming up the side of the channel.  When editing in post, I darkened the image a little more, to give it the feeling it was shot at night, and then brightened her face slightly to get more of that spot effect.  I finished by adding a vignette to the image. 


This second image is of Firelily cosplay as a 1920’s Loki variant.  I wanted to go for something sophisticated, due to the style of the dress but still capture the feeling of Loki.  Since this image was shot inside, I only had to stop down to f/8 to reduce ambient. I then relied on the flash to provide the fill and feel for the image.  As you can tell by the shadow the flash was up and to my right and slightly zoomed. In post I balanced the image, slightly darkening it and adding a vignette.


This third image of LeeLee as Bombshell Wonder Woman is pure classic pin up.  Since this cosplay was based on the Bombshell Wonder Woman poster I went for the clean and bright look.  To get this image I opened the aperture to f/4.5 to bring in a bunch of light and then added flash on top of that to get a nice crisp white. As you can see from the shadow the flash was only slightly to my left. In post I balanced the image then up the highlights, to give it a high-key look.  I did add a very slight vignette just to finish the image off and draw more attention to the model.


I wanted to do something a little different for this last image of Technicolor Mike B as an original charter from an apocalypse. Everyone does the end of days look, waging war, or some other variation thereof, I wanted to go for sophisticated.  I figure if our society breaks down there is probably going to be some chairman of the board, so I asked him to think of portraits of Steve Jobs.  Specifically, the one that was on Time Magazine.  I also asked him to think that he is the chairman of the board, and the apocalypse is just not going in the right direction. I like the image because it is different.  In post I increased the vibrancy of the colors, add a lot of texture using clarity, and did basic adjustments.  I also went in and specifically darkened the black face paint just to make it appear black instead of dark grey. (Sometimes flash can wash out make-up colors and you must go in and adjust to make it look like it did in person.)  From there I added a vignette to finish the image. 

Overall, it was nice to go and do some cosplay work, especially since I probably will not be going to any conventions till next year.  These events allow me to practice, try some new things, and just refine my skills for convention season.

You can see all my images from the meet up here. 

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