If you follow me on Facebook you will have seen that I’m increasingly investing time in cosplay photography. And I love it! There is something so satisfying about photographing someone who put their heart and soul into bringing a character to life by the means of cosplay. Last month, I did a shoot on location of Dreams Beyond Cosplay’s Ariel of The Little Mermaid – a collaboration with Darlene Dreeyers Photography. Today here on the blog I’m inviting you along on the behind the scenes journey of this photoshoot.
It took quite some time before we had found a date and time that worked out for the three of us, but once that was settled we could move on to more important tasks: locations! The original plan was to do the shoot at the seaside, but neither of us really lives closeby the sea and we couldn’t make it work for this time around (but hopefully we can make it work for a future project). Plan B turned out to be nature, and lots of it! We decided on this location called Ampies Berg, which is – believe it or not – someone’s backyard! It is open for public, though if you really want to do shoots there it is appreciate to inform them beforehand (special rules & regulations might apply for commercial shoots). There is so much variety: trees, bushes, flowers, stone walls, bridges…you name it. The second location did bring in the beach vibe a little bit, as we shot at a lake. Unfortunately, it started raining pretty badly when we had only been there for a short moment so we didn’t get to enjoy this for as long as we had hoped for.
For me this was the first shoot I did on location (so far I’ve only done proper cosplay photography at conventions), so I had to figure out things on the go and yes, also learn from my mistakes. When I enlarged my photos on my laptop afterwards there was unwanted sunflare, photos not sharp on the right spots, or still some people walking in the distance of the photo. I could reduce some of these faults, but by far not everything and honestly I don’t mind. I learned a lot for a next shoot again. And all with all it was so much fun to capture the photos, work together with another photographer, and make the model happy with the end result for her portfolio. In case you would like to see us in action, we did a short live segment on Facebook.
I’ve uploaded all my photos on Facebook if you would like to see them. Tips, tricks, and comments are always welcome!
Was a fun day! We should do a collar more often! ?