I’ve been semi-inspired to post this for a while now. I know some of you have been satisfied and some have not (perfectly okay!). you fail in life sometimes and that’s how you learn. just apologize and move on. but I wanted to share how I do things so maybe everyone will have a better idea of how I shoot and such.
*I know there are a lot of cosplay photographers, but this is rather how I do things. so please don’t generalize.
Step 1: advertising/setting up
this typically happens 1.5 months before the con and continues til 2-3 days before. Basically I take a combination of public requests and also cosplayers I want to work with. There’s a lot of back and forth communication, social networking activity, and such. Things about location and time and special requests. Sometimes people re-schedule and you have to shuffle people around or let them go. I don’t make it a personal habit of re-scheduling a shoot unless I have a personal emergency or need to squeeze in lunchtime – I am there to shoot at a con 95% of the time.
Step 2: packing
this happens the week day before the shoot. checking all the equipment. and checking which backback/suitcase setups I want to go with. doesn’t seem like it would take long, but I would say it’s about 2 hours for me. It’s a somewhat stressful thing as the equipment is 4 digits worth + if you know what I mean.
Step 3:transportation
I usually drive there, and depending on the con, stay or park valet so 2 hours before I shoot I pack. then I have to do an quick equipment check before I leave the car.
Step 4: shoot shoot shoot!
so I try to get there earlier by an hour so I can scout around. After that I start shooting by calling/texting them and letting them know I have arrived. Sometimes people show up. sometimes people don’t. if they don’t I walk around and shoot someone else after 15 minutes by staying around in the general area if they call. I usually take a 30 minute lunch (or less) and am shooting 95% of the time. I spend 5% talking to con friends and some hall shots. this is usuall 6-10 hours a day depending on how many days I am going.
and if you think we don’t suffer physically we do. our backpacks are heavily. our cameras make our wrists scream. setting up over and over makes us tired. and all those shots where we’re bending over to get the perfect shots works your abs to no end. just how I imagine you’re sweating to death in your giant mascot plushie or dying in that miniskirt and 6 inch heels with full makeup and fake eyelashes. we all suffer =)
Step 5: editing – lightroom
I accumulate 50 shots per shoot on average. I usually average 400 shots a day (varies if there are action shots, then there’s a LOT more). after that I put the shots through a first round of culling (trimming out similar angles/over or under exposed/bad poses expresions). The second round is basically I have 2 good shots, but which one is BETTER? I delete the other one. After that I apply a round of global general edits to all photos, followed by specific style edits (b/w, desaturation, etc). this has been known to take up 8 hours or so. About 15-30% of the shots survive this process.
step 6: photoshop magic
this is where I go and remove dark circles, large pores, background people, or any kind of major flaws for a select few pictures. there’s also a few special shots I want to revisit to enhance with creative edits averaging 5-10 min per picture this takes up to 2-3 hours.
for the special shoots I send out the edits for approval to the shoots which it was a 50/50 collaboration for approval. upon approval and re-edits if needed I post those at a later date. there’s a little bit of back and forth here but that’s natural.
step 7: posting/social networking
so I now produce full and web size JPGs. I upload the mass of them to my website. then select ones go on facebook/deviant. links are then posted on my facebook/twitter/website. this is about an hour of work
step 8: backing it up
I power up my 5 hard drives. yes 5 externals. and put the JPG and RAWs on them. I file away my model releases. may take up to another hour.
step 9: double checking
at this point I check on my sites everything is working because I am a perfectionist.
At this point I am exhausted and go to sleep or play a videogame to relax because odds I drove to a con, shot for 6 hours, came back and spent 5-6 hours finishing it. and I probably haven’t had dinner yet.
so yep that is what goes into my process. A lot of effort and love into my photos =)
