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Meet Up at the Roller Rink

On June 9th, I attended the D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots’ meet-up held at Skate N’ Fun Zone in Manassas, VA.  This was an interesting place to hold a photo meet up and challenged both cosplayers and photographers.  The location was very colorful and very open due to the skate rink.  I think this was challenging location due to colors, needing the right cosplay to make it truly work, and possibly needing to be able to roller skate some.  I did take some good photos, but I wouldn’t say this was my best work.

For this session I used:

  • Canon R6
  • 1 Speed light
  • Trigger
  • 1 Light stands
  • 24 - 105mm lens
  • Gels
  • Assistant

Camera Settings:

For this shoot I used a range of ISOs from ISO 100 to ISO2000 when I was in the laser tag section.  Though in general my ISO stayed around ISO 400 to balance ambient and flash.  I kept my aperture wide open at F4 or F4.5 to blur backgrounds, as the backgrounds could be very distracting.  While my shutter speed ranged from 1/30s to 1/200s with the most common speed being 1/200s.   My focal length ranged from 24mm to 70mm with the most common focal length being 24mm.

The Photos:

I felt this location was a challenge to shoot in due to the color scheme and it being a skate rink.  While it was very open and had possibilities, I was just struggling during this meet up to really be inspired by the location.  I was able to pull out a few good images.

My favorite image from the meet up is of Coralinx Cosplay as Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service.  The orange walls and checkerboard floor worked to provide a perfect contrast to her blue dress and bring that café feel to the image.  To get this image the flash was placed to my left close to the wall and put on its widest setting.  It was then pointed up towards the ceiling to bounce down and fill the space.  We also pulled the bounce card out to add a little direction to the light to create the slight shadows seen in the image.  In post I corrected the white balance, brought the exposure up slightly, increased the contrast slightly, and then added slight vignette to the image.  The image was basically perfect straight out of camera.  This is probably my best shot from the whole event.

ISO 400, Aperture F4.5, Shutter Speed 1/200s, Focal Length 24mm

Now in contrast to the cute Kiki picture I put a Death Korps of Krieg Soldier from Warhammer 40K by the Scarlet Impaler in the same location but did a completely different aesthetic.  Everyone was photographing the Scarlet Impaler in basically the same location, the laser tag area, I wanted to be different.   So, I went back to the same location I photographed Kiki and just changed the flash settings.  To get this image I narrowed the flash down to 105mm, placed it directly against the was pointing at the cosplayer, and brought ambient down.  So, what you get is the impression that a Krieg Soldier is sitting in a dark café that is only lit with light coming from a small window.  In post I corrected the white balance, increased the exposure and contrast slightly, balanced out the shadows, and then added a strong vignette.  That was it, very simple image that is dramatically different than the previous one just by changing the location and strength of the flash.

ISO 400, Aperture F4.5, Shutter Speed 1/200s, Focal Length 24mm

This last image is of Twink God Cosplay and their brother as Daft Punk. (Side note I would love to shoot this cosplay again but, in my studio, so I can do all the lighting effects.) They had these amazing sequined coats that I knew I had to accentuate somehow.  I chaise to accentuate them using a second flash with a green gel on it to get some color reflection of the jackets.  To get this image I had them pose against the rail of the skate rink, and my husband stood with the standard flash to my left and pointed the light down at an angle to them.  I then placed the green gelled flash to my right on the railing slightly angled slightly up and behind the cosplayers.  You can see the gelled flash in the image (should have edited that out).  The green flash provides the outline along the coats and little hints of color.  In post processing I corrected the white balance, adjusted the shadows, and added a slight vignette.

ISO 400, Aperture F4, Shutter Speed 1/125s, Focal Length 35mm

Wrap Up:

Overall, the meet up was ok, I think I could have done more but was just struggling with the location.  It also didn’t help that there were more photographers than cosplayers this time around so makes it difficult, at least for me, to keep a flow going.  I think this would be a great location for more of a portrait/fashion session rather than a cosplay session.  If I shot this location again, I think I would also bring a black mist filter to get glow off the games in the gaming area and hope people wore more sequins or glitter.  Definitely needed more sequins and glitter.  Honestly the Daft Punk outfit was great for the location, and I think any of Taylor Swift’s sequined tour outfits would be good here, because then you can play into the performance factor of roller skating.  Only thing is the model’s would have to know how to skate at least a little bit.  You can see all my the images from the meet up here: Roller Rink.

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