Rarely do I photograph the same cosplay twice. In order for me to photograph one again there has to be a twist to it, something exceptional about the cosplay or the person in it and I challenge myself to do something completely different lighting wise. Please check out Brandon The Shape Shifter on Facebook and Instagram. Brandon was amazing in every way; he’s one of those people with an unforgettably fun, kind and sweet personality. However when the camera clicked he posed like no one I have ever seen before! He had a jaw-dropping fierceness that can’t be compared, and on top of all that his cosplay was stunning as well.

I thought I would share some of the lighting thought process on this one (I use mainly Profoto B1’s and B1x’s). I used a 1′ X 4′ strip light with a grid on it at low power angled down on the backdrop. I placed a gridded light (probably a 10° or 20°) next to it at a higher power aiming behind the head, to give more separation between the subject and the background. I used another light with a grid on the face as I wanted to be able to control the light hitting the cosplay and face separately. Next, I used a gridded 2 ft. Octabox (Profoto B2) on the ground pointing up to light the bottom area of the cosplay and Cloak of Levitation. The Spell Disc glowed a glorious orange but the lights killed the glow, so we added a light behind the disc with a 5° grid and orange gel to recreate it. Then it was time to make the Cloak move! It was a little warm in our room so we tried cooling Brandon off with our leaf blower and hoped it would magically move the cloak to perfection. Unfortunately, the Cloak kept getting either spill from our orange-gelled light or blocking the orange, so it missed the disc. I had one assistant hold the cloak in a good position while another leaf blew the interior to add some dimension and shadow. One more assistant held the other side of the cloak and used a wave like motion to create movement on the other side. What would I do without my awesome assistants?


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