April Edition Live Magazine - April 2014 Issue. | Page 116

Muze | www.facebook.com/muzephotoncosplay
DIVA Cosplay | www.facebook.com/DivaCosplay
Lenneth XVII | www.facebook.com/LennethXVIIxMako
Fry Fry Photography | www.facebook.com/fryfryphotography
Simply Random | www.facebook.com/simplyrandom
Mein Karakuri | www.facebook.com/mein.karakuri
Peggy Sim | www.facebook.com/Darcy.Peggy

Darcy&Peggy | www.facebook.com/Darcy.Peggy
Kiwira Photography | www.facebook.com/Kiwira
Desmond Kok Mun Chung | www.facebook.com/roxwiindy

sistently. While there are chance that
cosplayers may hire a photographer
at a high price, but those chance are
rare. Thus making it more qualify for
a potential side income than a career.
2. Cosplay photography basically
means shooting people in costume
and those costume are base off
copyrighted material. While I do not
understand completely how legal
matter works, I simply feel the only
reason parent company/artist have
not taken any action as of it is because none of us worth enough
money to justify it been taken into
account, plus currently most of the
work is been done at a non-commercial base. But as soon as it is
done commercially and the person
is making enough profit, I’m sure it’ll
become a topic of discussion for the
creator of these works.
Overall I feel that while a person (be
it the cosplayer or the photographer)
can achieve high fame through this
hobby, how do the person wisely use
this fame and turn it into something
sustainable would be the big question.
With the rise in interest in cosplay
we see more and more new people visiting “cons” in costume, do
you have any advice for cosplay
photographers who are visiting?
Is there an etiquette to follow?

I would say be polite, ask, and pay
attention to your surroundings. Ask
if the cosplayer is okay to take their
photo, wait if they are not ready, and
do tell them where they can find their
photo. I will not comment much on
how the photo taking is to be carry
out as everyone works in their own
way and view cosplay photography
differently. I will only say that photography in general, especially when
your subject is human, is consider
a mutual project and thus should
be carried out with a mutual understanding.
When you visit “cons” do you
then get contacts to arrange more
photo shoots? What then happens, let our readers know how
you set up a shoot and then get
ready for the day of the shoot.

While it varies between photographers, I prefer to either to contact
or be contacted at least a few days
before the actual shoot as I need the
time to research on the series where
the characters are from, character
personality, art reference from official sources, light & color composition, backgrounds the specific convention offer, pose & composition,
effect I want, etc. The more pre planning is done the more efficient the
shoot would go. Also I would always
add another hour into the estimate
time required for the shoot because
no shoot ever starts or ends on time.
While at the shoot, I would first let
the cosplayers do a final check on
their costume/makeup while I look at
the location again to see how I want
to place the light as the light condition can be different at the time of

the shoot. Then the rest is a standardized procedure, communicate
with the cosplayers on what I want,
listen to what they want, to establish mutual ideas. Go through a few
compositioms, take a break to let
the cosplayer check their costume
again, preview the raws, and hold a
small discussion with the model on
whether the direction we’re heading
towards is good. I’m a strong believer in cosplay photo is a joint effort so I welcome discussion, even in
the case that our art direction greatly
differ.
When the shoots are finished and
I’m back at home/hotel. I would first
send out all the small size raws to
the cosplayers for review, we than
have a discussion on which photos
I like and which photos they prefer.

The result will then be color procession by me if the cosplayer prefer (I generally processed the color
base off the feeling of the original
series), it would than send to the
cosplayers again for review/discussion. Only than would the photo
be put into detail editing (clean up,
sharpen, etc.) and be ready for post.
Finally, where can our readers go
to find out more about you?

www.facebook.com/muzephotoncosplay