I’ve been taking photos for around six years now and there is something I’ve noticed when ever I post a photo I’ve taken at a comic con or when I share the work of others. The most likely the comment will be praising the cosplayer in the photo of how great the pose or costume looks.
Now, I wouldn’t want to take anything away from the cosplayer cause they do a wonderful job making the costume or acquiring the parts for it. But when it come to photos that I’ve taken, there is work I put in to get the photo looking the way it does, (*honestly I do put work into it, its not just point and click and a ten minute edit).
From my experience when taking a photo at times, I have to make sure the area suits their costume, pose them in a manner which suits them (that’s if they can’t think of a pose) and then afterwards I edit the photos.
I usually do at least two pose photos when on my walk about at cons, but when doing a longer “slot” I’ll have up to ten poses to edit and on location shoots I have worked on these will have over 50 photos to edit. The editing process when going through photos has taken me days to get through and the editing process has progressively gotten longer and longer with each new skill I have learnt.
Like I said, I don’t want to take anything away from the cosplayers whom I know spend months planning, sourcing materials and making it. I’ve always seen this as a collaborative work and it would be nice if more people would compliment the photographers hard work as well as the cosplayer.
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Vitarnii Bloodelf 21/11/2018
I love my photographers. I have one main one who is a beast. She not only does the standard location scouting and editing, but at the location she will defend me from snipers or selfie grabbers if it is busy and I’ve seen that woman climb trees, lay in puddles and jump in the ocean in order to get the perfect lighting/ angle.
If I show photos to people, I always tell the story of the photographer because she is amazing!