Cosplay Photography

Set up a photo studio at a cosplay event

A way to consider how to make money at a cosplay event is to organise a photo booth or photo studio at the cosplay event. You would need to gain approval from the event organisers and there would likely be a fee involved, but it could be a highly profitable occasion for you.

Setting up a studio, with lighting and backdrops and charging a payment to take photographs of attendees would likely be highly profitable. Participants in cosplay events go to great lengths and sometimes great expense to look the part, so by you providing a quality photography service in the form of professional cosplay portraits, you may find your services well-attended.

Cosplay events can attract thousands of visitors, with many dressed up as their favourite character. The likelihood of attracting clients for professional cosplay portraits during the event is high. So, think about it, this could be your opportunity to become known as the go-to cosplay photographer in your city!

Set up an outdoor location near a cosplay event

Another idea to get into the cosplay photography genre is to choose and set up a cosplay photoshoot session nearby to a cosplay event. Choose a local park, nature setting or other urban environment and canvass cosplay attendees for professional cosplay photography portraits.

A well-organised and professionally set up cosplay portrait location will give you a world of exposure and experience. You can charge a fee to take photographs, or if just starting out try free TFP (time for portraits/prints) sessions.

Cosplay photography locations

Although most cosplayers dress up once a year for major cosplay events such as Comic-Con, a lot still like to dress up in cosplay from time to time throughout the year. This provides you the opportunity to take advantage of this through providing professional cosplay photography services right throughout the year.

Explore your town or city for the best cosplay photography locations. These can be forested areas, thickly wooded parks, rocky outcrops, hiking trails, rivers, waterfalls, lakes, beaches, inner city urban street locations, historic sites, university campuses and museums.

Visit each of these areas and try to imagine your cosplay client within each scene. Take detailed notes on what you do and do not like about each location. Look at the lighting and visit each location in the morning, midday and late afternoon and determine the best time of day for a cosplay photoshoot. Bring your camera and take some shots of the scene for reference and to help you categorise each location.

Look up the character

Join local cosplay Facebook groups and follow cosplayers on Instagram and TikTok. It will give you some ideas such as the types of costumes cosplayers wear, props, makeup, hair, accessories and most importantly will give you a sense of the mood of each character. Also find out the origins of characters, their stories through comics, movies, or whatever material you can and just immerse yourself in the aura of each character. Doing all of this will give you a great sense of how to proceed with cosplay photography when it comes time to shoot professionally.

Decide a motive

A cosplay photoshoot can have multiple motives. It need not necessarily just be about posing the character or just dressing up. You can also enliven your cosplay photography by trying to convey the character’s growth or their ups and downs through a crossmatch of the fictional characters undertaking ordinary things. For example, Spiderman doing laundry, Harley Quinn at a grocery store, etc. Just use your imagination and visualise what you want to portray through your photo shoot.

Experiment with cosplay photography

Experiment with different angles and perspectives. Include props to effectively showcase your character in their prime. Also remember to choose locations that complement your characters.

Tips for cosplay photography

Even though it is a unique field of interest, cosplay photography can be quite challenging for photographers attempting it for the very first time. To help you champion your shots, here are some more tips cosplay photography!

Focus on lighting

In cosplay photography, the subject must look as natural as possible, no matter which character you have chosen. Even if it is a fictional character, you should showcase it as if it exists in the real world. Using natural lighting for such shoots may be the best option.

You can also use artificial light to aid with natural light such as external flashes, soft boxes, or a beauty dish. Just using your built-in camera flash will give you very basic lighting features that will likely not suit the cosplay mood at all.

An interested subject

The cosplayer will most likely have already studied their character including poses in detail, so you may find cosplay photography requires little posing instruction from you! If the subject is passionate about the character they are cosplaying and it fits their psyche perfectly, it could be one of those dream photoshoots where everything works out perfectly!

Not everyone will be a cosplay posing supermodel, but that is perfectly okay. When booking a cosplay photography client, you should find out their character style and research the character before the photo session so that you have a good understanding of the poses required.

Post-processing

Even though you may want your subjects to look natural, adding additional effects during post-processing can enliven your cosplay photo delivery. Speak to your client before the cosplay photography photo session to determine their expectations.

Ideally you should already have medium to advanced post-processing skills if you are going to attempt to place your cosplay model into more advanced post-processing scenes. To assist with post-processing, you should include props during the photoshoot rather than attempting to add them later.

Play with shadows and enhancing colours using contrast, vibrance and saturation to give your cosplay photos a very vibrant look. Similarly, you can also play with the subject’s skin tones and softness, and move your post-processing up a notch by keeping almost a thin line between the real person and a fictional versions of the cosplay images.

Cosplay photography is a fun genre

Cosplay photography may seem a complicated undertaking in the beginning, but just by attempting it, it will work wonders in improving your photography and conceptual skills. Cosplay photography can be a fun and exciting genre of photography. Cosplayers love the interest and emotion of dressing up and posing in character, so go ahead and experiment with cosplay photography. You may just find cosplay photography is your artistic specialty!