Fanime 2009: Photoshoots with Richard Bui
06 09 2009For the first day of Fanime, fellow cosplay photographer and friend Richard Bui invited me to shoot with him. This sounded like a lot of fun; I’d never shot at a convention with anyone before, and I could learn a lot by watching how someone else does it. We met up around noon, walked around a bit, and then met up with the cosplayer for the first scheduled shoot of the day.
Watching Richard set up each shoot was very educational. Having started out in photography (any photography, not just cosplay) doing convention hallway photos, and having never worked with film, I have a very fast-paced, trial-and-error-driven style: quick pose from the cosplayer, take some pictures, adjust if needed, and repeat. Hallway photography, by its nature, tends to be very time-sensitive, especially at huge conventions like Dragon*Con or Anime Expo. Even now, when doing photoshoots with a light stand and umbrella, I tend to position the umbrella and cosplayers fairly quickly, take a guess at the settings, and experiment a bit until the shot is perfect. It helps having the newer PocketWizards with ETTL; this makes getting the correct flash exposure much easier.
Richard, on the other hand, has a very methodical method. Generally, he will first envision the shot he wants. After setting up the lighting & umbrella, he will use a light meter to determine the proper exposure, and then a grey card to set custom white balance. Only then will he begin shooting. Each time the umbrella or model is repositioned, he will re-meter and re-white-balance. This leads to a much slower-paced shoot, where planning shots out carefully in advance is required. The big advantage to this method is that the resulting photos rarely need any touchup — they can usually be posted straight off the camera. The time I spent editing the photos from the shoots with Richard was amazingly low compared to my solo photoshoots. It also produces a higher ratio of “keepers’, since much less experimentation is required.
We had so much fun together on Friday that we met up again on Sunday and did a few shoots together. I learned a lot about portrait photography both days.
On to the photos…
KittyCatChi had a lot of photos of herself in costume, but she was lacking photos of herself in street clothes, so we did a plain-clothes shoot:
You can see the rest of my photos from this shoot at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/8335738_6geUA, and Richard’s photos at http://buiphotography.com/gallery/8300027_ySF2t.
Miss Nintendo as Rise from Shin Megami Tensei:Persona 4:
You can see the rest of my photos from this shoot at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/8335990_dkBgN, and Richard’s photos at http://buiphotography.com/gallery/8306510_oPNzJ.
CherryTeaGirl5 as Talim from Soul Caliber 2:
You can see the rest of my photos from shoot at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/8336151_8YbUr, and Richard’s photos at http://buiphotography.com/gallery/8310366_fEoHv.
Hikaru-Jan cosplaying as Needa Shuetlitch from Shuraki Trinity and Rena-Girl as Chrome Dokuro from Katekyo Hitman Reborn:
You can see the rest of my photos at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/8369548_2BWwF, and Richard’s photos at http://buiphotography.com/gallery/8310569_iyRBq.
LauraC as Lady Gundam Deathscythe:
You can see the rest of my photos at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/8430569_xBCR4, and Richard’s photos at http://buiphotography.com/gallery/8358748_qExPf.
KittyCatChi and Shinobi Yukari cosplaying as custom Arrancar Bleach characters of Matsumoto Rangiku and Renji Abarai:
You can see the rest of my photos at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/8440063_VW49i, and Richard’s photos at http://buiphotography.com/gallery/8338402_xm5YL.
The LunarLoop cosplay group wearing costumes from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles:
You can see the rest of my photos at http://photo.oscarc.net/gallery/8447146_jWR3u, and Richard’s photos at http://buiphotography.com/gallery/8348006_53gB7.
Oscar,
Thank you again for shooting with me, it was a great experience and I hope to have the opportunity again! All your photos turned out great!
I should mention that this technique for photo shoots have developed, much like everything else, from trial and error and a change in principle that spending a bit more time in setup, visualizations, and thought will produce results that are superior to the “fix-it-later” attitude in Photoshop. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t use Photoshop to creatively enhance a photo, but rather it frees you from the menial and often frustrating task of fixing exposure and white balance.
Although this technique isn’t much suited for the hustle-and-bustle fast paced speed of hallway photography which requires a more photojournalistic approach, it doesn’t mean that similar concepts from the photo shoots can’t be adapted and changed to take advantage of the “nailing it the first time” as opposed to just getting the shot and fixing it later in post. I have some thoughts and ideas and will hopefully be trying it out and seeing how viable it is.
[...] Oscar had written a very nice little article on his site about his experience shooting with me to which I had made some brief comments also. I’m glad you had fun and certainly look forward [...]
[...] operate.Also Oscar had written a very nice little article on his site about his experience shooting with me to which I had made some brief comments also. I’m glad you had fun and certainly look forward [...]