Month: March 2012

There are four location types for shooting cosplay photos. Each has its own style, and each has its pros and cons.

The types are:

• Convention Hallway photography
• Convention scheduled shoot
• Cosplay Gathering shoot
• Non-Convention shoot

I covered the first two types in a previous post. This week I’ll cover the third, and my next post will cover the fourth.

Cosplay Gatherings

Cosplay Gatherings are events where a group of cosplayers decide to meet up at a local park, zoo, or other area attraction. Frequently, these social gatherings are held at scenic locations that make great backgrounds for photo shoots. For photographers, they’re great places to meet and shoot with cosplayers away from the craziness and stress of a convention.

In many ways, cosplay gatherings combine the best aspects of convention hallway shooting and convention scheduled shoots. Like with hallway shooting, you don’t have to know any cosplayers in advance, and it doesn’t require any preplanning or scheduling. Like with scheduled shoots, you have a much better choice of backgrounds, and you can spend more time composing each shot.

Because of the informal nature of most gatherings, there are several ways you can shoot them. Some of the gathering shooting styles I’ve seen include:

• Candid photos of cosplayers having fun.
• Quick, hallway-style shots of each cosplayer.
• 5-10 minute mini-shoots. Most photographers do these with natural light or a reflector, but, depending on the location, some will set up mini-studios in one corner of the gathering, complete with umbrellas or softboxes.
• 30+ minute full shoots, where the photographer and cosplayer walk around the venue taking pictures in various pretty locations. If you’ve never done a non-convention shoot before, this type of gathering shoot is a good way to learn the skills you will need.

Safety Warning: Do not go someplace alone with a cosplayer you don’t know! Bring a friend along! Yes, even if you’re a big strong guy! (Then you can put your friend to work as a lighting assistant too!) Cosplayers, this also applies to you too! Almost everyone you meet at a gathering would never do anything bad, but it only takes one bad person…

Gatherings do have a number of downsides. Because gatherings are in public, some types of costumes are inappropriate. Also, many cosplayers will save their best (and usually most uncomfortable) cosplays for large conventions. Gatherings, being social events, are usually for less complicated and more comfortable cosplays. Gatherings also have much smaller attendance than most conventions; for example, Northern California gatherings usually have 60-120 people, as compared to Fanime’s 15,000. Finally, while gatherings are usually held in scenic locations, you’re still limited to the selected venue; for example, finding a good background to shoot a robot pilot cosplay in the middle of a park can be a challenge.

Finding a gathering near you can also be a challenge. Gatherings are usually not as well advertised as conventions, and depending on where you live, there may not be any near you. Generally, locations with large cosplay communities like Seattle or San Jose will have regular cosplay gatherings; people in smaller communities will have fewer options. Gatherings are usually advertised on regional cosplay Facebook groups, on cosplay.com and other cosplay-oriented websites, and on the forums of regional anime conventions.

You should choose the gear you bring based on the shooting style you plan on using. For example, when I was planning on doing mainly full shoots, I brought a portable softbox and a fast (large aperture) prime lens. When I was planning on doing studio-style mini-shoots, I brought my preferred studio lens, studio strobes and a large battery pack. The key is to bring the equipment to match the style you’re going to shoot, and then shoot in a style that matches your equipment.

I highly recommend that all cosplay photographers with nearby gatherings should go and attend them! If you don’t, you are missing out on a prime opportunity to take some great photos, meet cosplayers, and learn from other cosplay photographers.

In my next post, I’ll wrap up this series on shoot locations with a discussion of non-convention shoots.

There are four shooting types of cosplay photography, each with its own style, and each with its pros and cons. In this post I’m going to discuss the first two, and in my next posts I’ll go over the other two.

The types are:

• Convention Hallway Shooting
• Convention Scheduled Shoots
• Cosplay Gathering Shoots
• Non-Convention Shoots

Convention Hallway Shooting

This is the simplest form of cosplay photography, and what most cosplay photographers do first. It’s easy — show up at a convention, walk around, and when you see a nice costume, ask the cosplayer for a quick photo or two. It requires no preplanning or scheduling; you don’t need to know any cosplayers in advance. It’s a great way to meet people, to get practice shooting a wide variety of costumes, and to learn to shoot quickly.

It also has a number of downsides. Most obviously, the background for hallway shots is out of your control; you might have people walking through, or random signs, or some other distracting element. You also have very little time to think about the shot, because the person you stopped is on their way somewhere; if you get 30 seconds of their time, that’s pretty good. You’re also at the mercy of the lighting and environment where you stopped them; occasionally you can get them to step off to one side, where the lighting/background might be a little better, or you can spend more time in the areas of the convention with better lighting & backgrounds. Fundamentally, though, you’re stuck in the high-traffic areas of the convention, for better or for worse.

Some photographers will carry portable softboxes or other bulky gear for hallway photography, but for most photographers this isn’t practical. It cuts down on your mobility, and it gets very tiring by the end of the day if you’re not used to it.

For this type of photography, if you have an SLR, I recommend a relatively wide-angle lens; a prime or a relatively fast (large maximum aperture) zoom lens is ideal. Lenses like the 24-70 f/2.8, 18-55 f/2.8, 50/1.8, or 30/1.8 work well. (The 50/1.8 is an especially economical choice for many SLR brands.) An external flash bounced off the ceiling (if possible) or with a diffuser is also a good idea, and looks much better than a built-in pop-up flash.

Convention Scheduled Shoots

With this type of photography, you set up a time to meet up with a cosplayer at a convention and shoot for about 30 minutes at locations around the convention center. Because you now have a dedicated block of time with the cosplayer, you have more time to think about and compose each shot. You can also go with the cosplayer to areas with less foot traffic and better backgrounds.

Safety Warning: Do not go someplace alone with a cosplayer you don’t know! Bring a friend along! Yes, even if you’re a big strong guy! (Then you can put your friend to work as a lighting assistant too!) Cosplayers, this also applies to you too! Almost everyone you meet a convention would never do anything bad, but it only takes one bad person…

Because the cosplayer you’re shooting will be at the convention anyway, finding and scheduling shoots with cosplayers usually isn’t too hard. Shooting at a convention also makes it easy to schedule several shoots on one day. (Perhaps too easy! Don’t overschedule yourself! Allow time for meals, water, and breaks.)

The biggest downside of at-con shoots is that you’re still limited to the convention center and the immediately-surrounding area for backgrounds. Some convention centers aren’t too bad, and have a wide variety of reasonably lit and not-too-crowded locations. Others are crowded, with only ugly or busy backgrounds, or with terrible lighting. Also, since you’re shooting at con, you’re limited by the cosplayer’s schedule and the general hectic nature of a convention. Your shoot may end up being scheduled when the cosplayer has 30 minutes to spare between panel A and gathering B, so you may not have the cosplayer’s full attention during the shoot. And good luck if panel A runs late, and you have another shoot scheduled immediately after this one…

Gear-wise, you have a lot more flexibility than with hallway photography. Regardless of what you bring, keep in mind you’re going to be carrying it around the convention center to each location you shoot at, so unless you’re going to do all the shoots in one location near your hotel room, it’s wise to keep the gear to relative minimum.