Whenever I wasn’t doing a photoshoot at Fanime, I was usually walking around the convention center, talking photos. Hallway cosplay photography is challenging for many reasons.

The biggest challenge is time. Because a hallway photo interrupts whatever the cosplayer is doing at the time, the photography has to be quick — a minute or two at most. There is very little time to adjust camera settings or pose the cosplayer.

The second biggest challenge is location. Because of the limited amount of time, the photo usually needs to be taken at or near where the cosplay is standing, so there is relatively little control of background or setting.

The third challenge is portability — the picture has to be taken with whatever you can carry around the convention. This usually means on-camera or on-bracket flash and a small flash modifier. Most convention centers have wierd lighting, wide open spaces, and high ceilings. Most on-camera-flash modifiers work best with a ceiling or, worst case, some walls to bounce some of the light off of. Deprived of bounce surfaces, you’re stuck with a modified direct flash, which is never the most flattering of lighting.

Because of these issues, many convention photographers don’t do hallway photography. I do for several reasons. First, I like taking pictures of a variety of costumes. In the time it takes to do one photoshoot, I can photograph thirty excellent hallway costumes. Second, many excellent cosplayers never sign up for photoshoots with anyone, perhaps because they don’t know any photographers, or are too shy, or mistakenly believe their costume isn’t worth a formal shoot. If I only did formal shoots I would miss out on a lot of top-notch costumes. Finally, many up and coming cosplayers are still learning their craft. They worked hard on their costumes, and enjoy getting their picture taken & posted. They deserve to have a few good shots of their cosplay even if they are not in the top 1% of costumes.

Thursday hallway photos:

See the rest at Thursday Fanime 2009 Hallway Costumes.

Friday hallway photos:

See the rest at Friday Fanime 2009 Hallway Photos.

Saturday hallway photos:

You can see the rest at Saturday Fanime 2009 Hallway Photos.

Sunday hallway photos:

You can see the rest at Sunday Fanime 2009 Hallway Photos.

Monday hallway photos:

You can see the rest at Monday Fanime 2009 Hallway Photos.