Live Magazine Christmas 2016 ISSUE Live Magazine December 2016 Issue | Page 186

PHOTO TIPS

WHY TAKING TIME FROM SHOOTING COSP

BETTER PHO
This article isn’t for the casual photographer that loves to go along
to XYZ Con and shoot some cool
photos of cosplayers and that’s
them done for the month and or
year. No, this is for the photographer that wants to get better.
Wants to improve themselves as
an artist. Firstly though, I want to
explain how cosplay can help you
become better as an artist. The
main benefits of cosplay photography is you don’t have to worry
about make up, hair styling and
even models - if you know some
cosplayers they’ll usually happily
organise a shoot with you. What
you do need to do though, is ensure your location matches the
character or mood of the shoot.
If you’re at a “con” the challenge
is that the background is often a
bunch of people walking around
having fun. So, what I tend to do
is treat a con shoot as almost a
journalistic style shoot - capturing the day and the colour and
costumes of the event. Cosplayers know their characters and
generally know how to pose to
suit. So you end up with much of
the photo worked out before you
even shoot.
So how does other genre’s help
you improve? Some time back,
on a cold winters day, I was walking the city streets wanting to do

some street photography and
after a while I noticed myself
exploring angles and shadows. I
took the time to seek out these
subjects as I walked. I forced myself to try getting lower down, to
climb h