Cosplay Meet Up in the Park

On May 27th, I attended the D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots’ meet up at the Walker Nature Center in Reston, VA.   The Nature Center is part of a small park that has a pavilion and sever short wooded walking paths.  As well as a paved path that leads down to stream.

For these sessions I used:

• Canon 80D
• 1 Speed light
• Trigger
• Light stand
• 18-200mm lens

Camera Settings:

This was a completely outdoor event, in a wooded area that had a mix of sun and shade. The biggest hurdle here was green cast due to all the green leaves.   For this event I shot at ISO 100 and ISO 200.  I was trying to utilize the natural light, while just filling with my flash so my aperture was moving around quite a bit. My aperture ranged from F4.5 to F9 with most shots being taken at F6.3. I was running a delicate balance of light and depth of field, as I usually prefer to shoot closer to F9 for the increased depth of field/focus area.  My shutter speed ranged from 1/30 to 1/250s with most shots being taken at 1/125s. My focal lengths ranged from 18mm to 60mm with 18mm being the most common.

The Photos:

I feel I was challenged by this shoot, not due to lighting conditions but due to the location in general. The area is pretty but I just was not seeing the right compositions, based on the light.  I think just coming out of a workshop focused on finding the light and telling a story had me a bit too focused on the background compared to the cosplays.  The other challenge for this session was the editing in general, as I had to get rid of the green cast produced by all the leaves on the trees.  Light picks up the color of the things it being reflected by or passing through and in this case, it was a lot of green leaves.

This first image is of Firelily Cosplay in her 1840s Katrina Van Tassel dress from Sleepy Hollow.  For this image the model is sitting under the pavilion in shadow, and mostly backlit. I place the speed light to my left at about a 45-degree angle.  In post I did all the basic adjustments and increased the exposure slightly. I also adjusted the color by pulling down the oranges and yellows.  Then I then added a blue (shadow)/orange (highlight) color grade.  I then changed the overall color profile of the image from Adobe color to Adobe Artistic 3, which change the scene from summer greens to more of a warm early fall by removing a lot of the green and adding warm tones. I then ran the image through Photoshop and applied a neural filter, to even out the skin tones.  A vignette was added to finalize the image.

(ISO 100, Aperture F5, Shutter 1/30s, Focal Length 20mm)

This next image is of the lovely Laci.Neal. For this image I did all the basic adjustments, I adjusted the white balance of the image off the dress then adjusted the tone curve to give it a slight upward curve. I thin adjusted the color by pulling down the saturation of the greens. After that I pulled the clarity down slightly to give the image a softer look.  I then applied a purple (shadows)/ yellow (highlights) color grade to the image.  I then pulled the image into Photoshop and applied a neural filter to even out skin tones.  From there I added a nice vignette.

(ISO 200, Aperture F6.3, Shutter 1/125s, Focal Length 60mm)

This last image is of a cosplayer who’s name I cannot remember but is doing a character from Lord of Rings.  To get this image I place the flash to my left in line with her body. I did this so the light from the flash would line up with the shape of the natural light behind her.  While I had gels on me, I forgot to add them to match the light from the flash to the natural light, so I had to adjust the color slightly during post processing.  In post I used a daylight white balance then did all my standard adjustments. I then added a circular gradient to the model’s face to brighten it just slightly. I then applied a purple (shadows)/ yellow (highlights) color grade to the image. The color grade brought down the intensities of the greens while adding a warmth to the highlights and overall image.  I then finished the image with a vignette.

(ISO 200, Aperture F6.3, Shutter 1/125s, Focal Length 18mm)

Overall, this was more relaxing event then previous ones as I only worked with five cosplayers.  I also wasn’t moving as fast as I normally do, and the walking time between locations and the main gathering point ate up shooting time, especially going down to the stream and back.  I’ll probably use the location in the future for some one-on-one sessions as it is the right size to get a few different things in about an hour without rushing.  You can see all the images from this meet up here: May Meet Up.