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[Hey Elwood]

Good Saturday morning everyone,

I'm brand spanking new to this forum. I'm a photographer who is new to cosplay. I met a model who is really big into her character (bride of the water god) and we decided to do some shoots. Well, she wanted the photos so she could do the editing (which I did) but she also wanted me to do my own edits (which I also did). Well every time I would do an edit she hated them. With out any direction on her part, I had no idea of what she wanted me to do. Needless to say she got so frustrated that she decided not to work or talk to me again. She seemed a little overboard in my opinion but I would still like to know the following.

How do you edit a photo to get it to look like a "cosplay/anime" photo. I'm a master at photoshop so I have the skills and equipment to work with photos but I'm still dumbfounded.

[TykeJack]

Originally Posted by Hey Elwood

Good Saturday morning everyone,

I'm brand spanking new to this forum. I'm a photographer who is new to cosplay. I met a model who is really big into her character (bride of the water god) and we decided to do some shoots. Well, she wanted the photos so she could do the editing (which I did) but she also wanted me to do my own edits (which I also did). Well every time I would do an edit she hated them. With out any direction on her part, I had no idea of what she wanted me to do. Needless to say she got so frustrated that she decided not to work or talk to me again. She seemed a little overboard in my opinion but I would still like to know the following.

How do you edit a photo to get it to look like a "cosplay/anime" photo. I'm a master at photoshop so I have the skills and equipment to work with photos but I'm still dumbfounded.

Can we see some of the originals and then the edited ones so we can get a better understanding of the changes you made and see how "masterful" you are at photoshop?

So a few things here. There is no "cosplay/anime" photo look. Cosplay photography is just like any other photography and most closely related to portrait photography. You can try your hand at photo manipulation to introduce a sense of fantasy and ambiance to the image example 1 , example 2 . This should be an easy approach for a master of photoshop. If you don't want to do that much editing, then it's probably better to go for a more simple portrait shot(portrait 1, portrait 2) or action shots like the spectacular photos of Brucer007. When I shoot cosplay portraits, I don't focus on how the character would act or behave, I focus on the emotion of the person portraying that character. My second portrait example is Vanille from FFXIII. That picture is not representative of Vanille's personality nor is it exuberant with an anime feel but I feel it is successful because it captures the cosplayer's expression, her innocence, and her charm.

The next thing I'd advise is not to relinquish control of your work over to the cosplayer. Before we get 20 people in here saying the same thing, yes, it is important to work with the cosplayer to achieve the best results. However, those results need to be your own. You are the photographer and photography is your art, your voice, your expression, not the subjects. People are usually their own worst critics. From wedding photography to portraits, people always see the worse when they see themselves in a photograph. So it doesn't make much sense to hand them the raw image data and say "here, good luck with finding some you like." Instead, you need to present him/her with an image that shows how you see them. Ultimately that's what photgraphy is, it's your perspective of the visual spectrum. So you need to make that perspective loud, dominant, and so clear that the client believes in it and disregards their own prejudices.

With any service industry, it is best to under promise and over deliver. This way you set low customer expectation and when you deliver results that exceed those expectations, it leads to higher customer satisfaction. By giving her permission to edit the photos, you basically set no expectation, which means their will be a larger discrepancy between the final result and whatever imagined expectation she had and normally that discrepancy is a negative one yielding an unsatisfied customer. To sum it up, be authoritative, don't let others control your work, and find your own voice. If she doesn't like the results after you've done all that, then that's fine, everyone has different tastes. But, if you keep trying to adhere to their every command and give them control of the shoot, then ultimately it will just end up with bickering and more frustration. When this happens, not only do you have a bad experience with the final results of the images, but you also have a bad experience working with and communicating with the photographer, which is a double whammy.

[wasabiprodution]

Originally Posted by TykeJack

it is important to work with the cosplayer to achieve the best results. However, those results need to be your own..

i couldnt have put it better my self.

[Hey Elwood]

Thank you for the information. It is very helpful. Here is 1 example of what the model wanted me to do, the result I was able to come up with her comments.

Here is what she wanted me to duplicate.

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...by-d3h0m3r.jpg

Here is what I came up with

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...ntines-123.jpg

And she hated the photo. She didn't like her chin, the vinetting, the colors (saturation is what I think she was referring to).

Here is another photo that I was able to do some editing on but she didn't like that either.

http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s...copyright2.jpg

[TykeJack]

In business, sometimes you have to fire a customer. I've shot with people who are solely concerned with their physical appearance and since they don't like their chin or nose or waist, don't like the photograph. I make it a habit not to work with those people in the future.

I can see from the first image that she wanted you to emulate, that her nose and chin have been altered with the liquify brush. I can tell because there are subtle discrepancies with the red line in the background where it's suddenly squeezed by her nose and her mouth. I also used your picture as a reference and can clearly see that her chin and nose are much more pronounced than in the photo she wanted you to replicate. It's hard to edit them in your first image because her nose is overlapping his face so shrinking it would cause his face to stretch. This is an example where the cosplayer doesn't like her physical appearance. It has nothing to do with you or your photo, she just doesn't like her pronounced chin and pronounced nose.

Just to try and bridge the gap between what you've said she didn't like, I'll make a few observations. She didn't like the vignette possibly because it's rare to see a white vignette. People are more use to seeing dark ones as it represents natural light lens fall off. It also appears the first image is a little desaturated so if she didn't like this, maybe she wants something warmer and a little more colorful. I personally think your image is fine, and it's logical to have a light vignette with an image that's bright and has less color saturation. So this is really just a matter of preference.

[TykeJack]

I actually think your images are pretty good. I think part of the problem you had in this experience was giving her unedited photos then giving her edited ones. I bet she wouldn't have had half as many problems with your editing styles if she had no idea what the original looked like. But, since she knows what the original image looked like, she knows what you changed and how much you changed it. Like I said before, just give them your final product.

I'll also say that you should refrain from trying to mimic others. I know she gave you an example image, but if she already has an image that she likes, then why would she want another one of the same? If you give in to this demand, you ultimately open yourself up for criticism because now you're trying to compete with something she already likes. It's a losing battle. From her example, take the emotions of lust and intimacy and try and create them in your own unique style. This way the picture will have a similar feel, but will be different enough that you're not competing with or trying to replace another image. Does that make sense?

EDIT: Sorry for the double post, but the site wouldn't let me post a paragraph I wrote, so I tried to work around it and finally figured out which paragraph it was and just had to omit it. Basically it was in reference to your last image. Since we know she doesn't like her nose and chin, shooting from a down angle only emphasizes these traits. Try shooting her from eye level with her facing the camera, which will hide the length of these features.

[Hey Elwood]

Thank you again for your comments...and kind words about my photos. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy.

[sunseenli]

Slightly off topic, but Tyke, you do AMAZING work. I'd love to run into you at a con someday.

[TykeJack]

Originally Posted by sunseenli

Slightly off topic, but Tyke, you do AMAZING work. I'd love to run into you at a con someday.

Thank you very the lovely compliment, great job on the Rogue cosplay

[sunseenli]

Thank you muchly! I can't take credit for the costume construction, but I do what I can with attention to detail.

[Max_Archer]

Worrying about making a picture look like a "cosplay photo" isn't worth it. There are certain things that all the kids on dA like to favorite but it's not worth compromising your own style or vision for it.

Shoot the way you want to shoot and you will find people who appreciate the style and will want to work with you.

And personally, I never release or deliver unprocessed photos. These days, the processing is as much a part of the final image as what you do in-camera. A lot of people misinterpret that as saying that you have to do a ton of processing, but it's really just about making your own choice as to how the photo is processed.

[Ashurachan]

If you need inspiration for cosplay photography, don't search for it in other cosplay photography, search for it in the work that the character comes from.
When a cosplayer makes a costume, he tries to make it as close to the original as he can, while transposing it to the real world. As a former cosplayer, I have the same approach to cosplay photography : I try to transpose the original work into the real world. I like to think of my cosplay photography as fanart in photography form.

[SolarTempest]

Originally Posted by Hey Elwood

I'm a photographer who is new to cosplay. I met a model who is really big into her character (bride of the water god) and we decided to do some shoots. Well, she wanted the photos so she could do the editing (which I did) but she also wanted me to do my own edits (which I also did).

The problem here is that she wanted a style that is not yours. For a lot of photographers, it's easier to get rid of/not take jobs from these types of clients (for the future). The photographer just ends up being frustrated and the client unsatisfied.

Sometimes it's nice and worthwhile to be as accommodating as possible, other times it just kills you for no good reason at all. x_X

Originally Posted by Hey Elwood

How do you edit a photo to get it to look like a "cosplay/anime" photo. I'm a master at photoshop so I have the skills and equipment to work with photos but I'm still dumbfounded.

It's not really a matter of skill, rather just a matter of personal taste. Still, there are many great photographers around here with large bodies of work for you to get some good ideas at least.

[brucer007]

Originally Posted by Ashurachan

If you need inspiration for cosplay photography, don't search for it in other cosplay photography, search for it in the work that the character comes from.

I do agree that it is very helpful look at the source the character comes from when chooseing a photographic style to match a character. I google images of the show and the characters to get an idea of the types of locations, colors, textures, style, and tone, poses, moves, and powers, etc.

A photographer can make choices based on all that, but there is also plenty to gain by looking at other photographer's work, whether it be specifically cosplay photography, or just any photography that might give you ideas. This can make you aware of techniques you might have not been aware of. I would not necessarily recommend to copy one photographer's style, but I would recommend to take pieces from many different photographers, including pieces of your own. You don't have to reinvent the wheel in order to create something amazing and even unique.