How to photograph cosplayers...

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Red eye is caused by looking directly into the camera lense: it's a reflection of the blood vessels in your eye that occurs when the flash is located close to the camera lens, as in most cameras with a built-in flash. So I'd just take a bunch of photos of people staring directly into the camera lense, cross my fingers & hope some red eye turns up for you to then fiddle around with & see what works for you best. Make sure that they don't look above the camera, this changes the angle the flash bounces back from eye to lense & then reduces the chances of getting it as JP has said.

I always tend to edit my photos after- I've not had a change yet to RTFM of the swanky camera the school's lent out to me, and photoshop is more familiar to me. (I'm a creature of habit. 8D) I'm with Static & am wary of auto correct things: whilst the remove red-eye tool in photoshop is great for convenience, I sometimes find it gives a case of milky eye so instead manually mess with it using colour balance and hue/saturation. Of course, that's only my method of doing things & I'm sure there are plenty of better ways to do things. Very Happy

By Zeb. 01/08/09, 01:27 pm

Static wrote:: What camera are you using?

Nikon D90

http://www.geekchixxx.com/2009/05/unboxing-my-nikon-d90/

If you're into un-boxing. Love the cam, just wish I could do it justice.

By Static. 01/08/09, 02:12 pm

Ha! Same as mine! Awesome Very Happy

By **JVCA**. 26/08/09, 10:41 am

Rikki and I were just discussing this and we both agree: One place I draw the line is asking cosplayers to enact shounen-ai scenes - if they offer, I'll certainly take them up on the offer, but I think it's rude to ask anyone - even of het pairings - to mack it with someone they may not even know just because I like their characters together.

EDIT: Also: Asking for naked photos of a person as there character = MASSIVE NO-NO. D:

By Highlander. 26/08/09, 11:43 am

neimhaille wrote:

JVCA wrote:: I think one thing that we lack in terms of cosplay photographers here is people that can direct the cosplayer to a good shot

Quoted for truth.

It might be somehting to chat to Bill about. Especially if it can help with congesstion in the halls ;) When we were looking for a room in Wellington this year there was one spot which would have been an amazing backdrop- lots of ambient light no stark shadows- but the noise would have been too much for judging skits. I might ask Bill about it though for photos next year.

I actually think a smallish white well lit room or corner for posing would be good. Maybe a few backdrop screens?

Zeb wrote:: Static a lot of dSLRs come with red eye correction, what do you think of their effectiveness? Is it worthwhile using them? Or better to ignore it and just after editing?

I believe some cameras are capable (could be wrong) of using like a pre flash thing. You don't really notice it, but your eyes adjust a little reducing red eye? Maybe read your manual. It depends on how picky you are, how many hours of edit you want to do.

My advice below. I am not a good photographer myself, so I will not list the basics you should know, but will link you to a site. And do work with others like Static occasionally. Even pros differ in their approaches, so they can still learn of each other.

Read. And practice. Remember that especially with digitals then getting those few shots that work may just be a case of taking a few hundred shots. If you really want a shot to work them take three. One or two of the three you will get the focus, etc right, with luck. Then change position/pose and take your next shots.

Here is a little site I find good. Hardly the only one, but it is free, and you can subscribe, and get the new articles emailed to you each week. Or browse the site, discuss with other users, see photos, etc. It covers all the basics, often from different angles, and in very basic language. Good for different ideas. Not many cosplay photos, but plenty of alternatives on posing, etc Or try sites like cosplay.com, they will have tutorials.

http://digital-photography-school.com/

And although I don't think these are great photos here are some of mine. Look at the ones of Lucy. I just said things like sad, tired, happy, excited, sly, about to pounce, etc. Then we got told off by mall security. Apparently photos are a no no.

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/574024197nvzuyi

And I would like to do a session going over the basics sometime, if people are interested. Probably in ChCh, but someone could do a session at Auckgeddon one year? I would like to take a day and just go over one thing, then go and take photos using that one thing before moving on to the next thing, eg. framing shots, then DOF, etc.

By Static. 27/08/09, 01:08 am

Hehe. I can't wait to finish all my shoots, it's gonna be AWESOME! Cosplayers are totally the funnest peple to shoot. nodnod

By vefalasiel. 23/03/11, 01:39 am

Practicing your character's face and poses in front of a mirror REALLY helps.

Then you can get used to how you feel, how your face feels when making those movements/expressions and it makes for an altogether better photo.
Working out what works and what definately doesn't is much better to find out about in the comfort of your bathroom, than in front of cameras, because you know that most of those photos will make it onto the internet.

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