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Double Cosplay Session

On March 25th, I did a purple flower themed cosplay session with Mimi.  In this session we did cosplays with the same base set, first Petra as Artemis (fan art from _zordanna_) and the second Hanabi.

For this session I used:

Photography Equipment

Props/Miscellaneous

Cannon 5D Mark II

24-70mm Lens

Transmitter/Trigger

2 Phottix strobes

1 Westcott FJ400 strobe

2 Cannon speed lights

purple gels

2 c-stands

1 light stand

2 Backdrop stands

2 White fluffy backdrops

Sandbags

2 bell reflectors

70cm ocatbox

2 foot posing cube

1.5 foot posing cube

Flower arrangements

3x2 foot frame

50-lb Fishing line

Cardboard boxes

Large Styrofoam pyramid

Purple tulle

 

The set up

I started with the same set up, I used for the “Beauty in a Frame” set I did a few a couple weeks earlier. I started with a white fluffy backdrop, then placed my cubes, pyramid, and cardboard boxes to create levels.  I then covered this structure with a second white fluffy backdrop and draped purple tulle it.  I then placed the flower arrangements.  The next task was to hang the frame in front of the set I just built. To do this I set up a second backdrop stand and hung the frame from using heavy fishing line. The fishing line was slightly easier to work with then then the thin gauge wire, but allowed for more movement.

To light the images, I used 5 lights (3 strobes and 2 speedlights).  I placed the two Phottix strobes with their small bell reflectors, on C-stands and pointed the strobes basically straight up at my white ceiling and used it as super large bounce.  Once the main strobes were in place, I added two speed lights with purple gels to the background.  Finally, I brought in light stand with a FJ400 with 70cm ocatbox attached. The purpose of this light was to add a bit of pop to the model’s face, as the light was very diffuse due to the bounce. I went with the ocatbox instead of a bell reflector with a grid because I wanted softer light and a wider spread of light for this session.

Camera Settings

For this session I used ISO 100 with an aperture of F4.5 and F5.6, and shutter speed of 1/200s.  My focal length ranged from 24mm to 65mm with most of the images being taken at 24mm.  

The Photos

This session was broken up into two parts, we did Petra as Artemis for the first 30-minutes then switch over to Hanabi for the last 30-minutes doing a variety of images.  The key to this session was adjusting the set as I went, basically deconstructing it as I went to meet the character and cosplayer’s needs. 

In this first image is a simple image using the frame to “frame” the model. You’ll notice in based on the lighting the frame is slightly in shadow while the model and background are well lit.  I achieved this by moving the light stand with the FJ400 and ocatbox to be to my left, behind the hanging frame pointed directly at the model. I did not move the Phottix strobes, as they provided the fill light for the scene.  When I pulled the image into Lightroom, I adjusted the white balance and exposure slightly. I also cloned out the fishing line. Then added a medium vignette to finish the image.

In this second image I removed the frame but kept the same basic lighting set up, with the Phottix strobes bouncing off the ceiling, and the FJ400 with ocatbox lighting the model’s face and body. I did all my basic adjustments in Lightroom and then pulled the image into Photoshop to create the halo effect.  I created the halo effect to align a bit with the concept art and to give the image a bit of flair.  To create the effect, I followed the “Create a glowing neon halo effect in Photoshop” tutorial on YouTube.  I feel the halo helps the image portray the regal goddess look the cosplayer is trying to achieve.

 

This last image is from when we switched over to Hanabi. For this image I used the same light set up as in the previous image.  I then stood on a stool to get the slight downward angle of the shot. In post I did my basic edits and cleaned up the seem where the two backdrops met, to try to make it look like one continuous piece of material. I also cleaned up a bunch of little white fuzzies on the black leggings, which were caused by the fuzzy white backdrop.

I was slightly worried that doing two cosplays in one session would be difficult and we would go over time.  Since the cosplayer came ready to shoot the first cosplay, and there were only a few poses to get through for each cosplay we were able to manage both in 60-minutes.  It also helped that I set a timer and there was no large set change between cosplays.  Do I think we spent the right amount of time on the first cosplay, no. I feel we could have done a few more poses and I could have gotten a bit more creative and dramatic with the lighting.  Do I think we spent the right amount of time on the second cosplay, yes. I always feel the school outfit cosplays go quickly as I feel like the characters have a limited range of poses.  Overall, this was a good session, and I feel like I got all the right shots. 

Credits:

Model: Mimi (Instagram: @jjustiincase)

Set Design: Heather of Munchkin Photos (Instagram: @munckin_photos_by_heather)

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