Cosplay Facts-20131122

I have shown you cosplay makeups, photography skills, and photos, but I didn’t tell you the history of cosplay. Today I will tell you some history and facts of cosplay. 

Cosplay culture has originated in japan, since it is one of the most developed places for manga and anime. The estimated yearly economic impact is 230 trillion YEN. Thousands of manga and animations are published each year. Cosplayers do cosplay for those manga and animations. In japan, tons of people put away their shyness only when they dress up. Then the cosplay phenomenon spread to China, America and Europe.


Let us explore further, cosplay in its basic form was here even before Christ. The Greeks performed cosplay when they were doing sacrifices. They dressed up as their gods and pretended that they had godlike powers.

Cosplay culture became a solid part of pop culture throughout the recent couple of years. We can find Cosplayers in the comic conventions and in all kinds of cosplay events. Nowadays there are more than 46 big conventions and about 100 small ones happening all around the world every year. And the number is growing by each year.

In United States, the greatest convention is San Diego’s comic-con. In its premiere in august 1970, there were only 145 attendees. Today, the number of attendees is 136,000. The attendance of New York comic convention was around 33,000 people in 2006. But in 2013, the number of attendees has jumped to 133,000.






Currently are 14 big comic conventions in United States 
every year. 

On the other hand, cosplay became a pop culture not only because people notice cosplay more, but also it is a great way to be entertained and relaxed. When people dress in costumes, they pretend that they are characters from fictional worlds. This is how people can get rid of pressure and stress for a while.

Do you have a favorite fictional character? Do you still have a wonderland dream? Maybe it is time for you to do some cosplay now. So whom are you dressing up as?

Cosplay Class-20131103

Last time I showed you some lighting examples in dark situations. Today I will show you more lighting skills in bright locations. Never think that you have enough light. You will always lose light. But sometimes only reflectors will provide you enough lights during day time. Also, you can provide extra lighting, mount your camera on a tripod and use a longer exposure, or paint with light (leave the shutter of a tripod-mounted camera open in a time exposure while you illuminate the subject with repeated electronic flash bursts, a flashlight, or some other light source).

Now it’s time to see our examples. One of them is taken at night but there are a lot of street lights. Others are taken in day time.  

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In this photo, the photographer set a flash light that oppose to the model. As I said before, if the light is straightly to the model’s face, there will be no shadow on her face. In case to make the light softer, the photographer put a silver umbrella reflector in front of the light. Light falloff can be used to vary the relationship between the light on your subject and your background. If you place a light close to your subject, the falloff from the subject to the background will be more pronounced. Move the light farther from your subject, and the background will be relatively brighter. Since the lights on the street and cable car are bright enough to hold the background, we set the light a little bit closer to our model. The same holds true for side lighting: With a light close to the side of your subject, the falloff of light across the frame will be more pronounced than if the light is farther away.

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This photo was taken at dusk. But we already lose lots of natural light. The photographer set a light with diffuser in the left front of the model. Diffusion scatters light, essentially making the light source broader and therefore softer. When clouds drift in front of the sun, shadows get less distinct. Add fog, and the shadows disappear. In the nature, clouds, overcast skies, and fog act as diffusion—something that scatters the light in many directions. In case to show the background, the photographer also set a 135mm flash light behind the model.

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This photo was taken between two buildings. The environment is bright, but when you shoot her you will find that she looks flat. So we have to set a light with silver reflector umbrella in the right front of our model. Front lighting de-emphasizes texture; lighting from the side, above, or below emphasizes it. A portraitist may want to keep the light source close to the axis of the lens to suppress skin wrinkles, while a landscapist may want side lighting to emphasize the texture of rocks, sand, and foliage. Generally, the greater the angle at which the light is positioned to the subject, the more texture is revealed.

So, today I’ve shown you three more ways to set your lights when taking photos during daytime. Please have a try by yourselves. I hope you will have pretty photos(●′ω`●).

Cosplay Sharing-20131101

Today I have the honor to interview a famous Cosplay photographer Bunny Tuan.

http://bunnytuan.deviantart.com/ this is her deviant art site. She posts her works here.

Cosplayer: Moji    Photographer: Bunny Tuan

Q: What drives you to do Cosplay photography?

A: I’m a cosplayer. At the early time when my friends and I did cosplay, we don’t have professional photographer. That’s why I decided to learn photography. My mother has a photography studio, so I ask her to teach me. At first, I just shoot my friends. They posted the photos online and people saw them. They asked who the photographer is, and my friends introduce me to others. Since that, more and more people ask me to shoot them.

Q: How long have you been doing this?

A: I started from my first year in college. That was 7 years ago.

Q: So you’ve been keeping doing this for all those years?

A: Yes. I cannot count how many cosplayers I’ve been worked with.

Q: Could you tell me something happened that really touched you?

A: Let me think. I remember that 2 months ago, a cosplayer from Oakland contacted me and ask me to take pictures for him. He said that was his first time doing cosplay. He felt so nervous. I told him to relax and be himself. Before shooting, he read the comic book again and again. He also practiced posing for days. I think for most people, cosplay is just a hobby and not so serious. But this guy worked very hard.

Q: How was cosplay photography changed you?

A: I was a shy person, really. After I become a cosplay photographer, I went to conventions or comic fairs to meet new people. I forced myself to communicate with others. Doing this makes me more open.

Q: What’s the largest benefit of doing this?

A: I’m not making money by doing this. First I think doing cosplay photography let me make a lot of new friends. Second it is my hobby, doing this gives me a rest from daily hard works.