Comic Con; a celebrated weekend for fans to gather amongst the greatest pop culture icons from gaming, movies, television and of course comics. This annual collective transports paper and screen into flesh and blood, all annually at nearby The Great Philadelphia Comic Con. Leading up to the weekend tireless hours are spent, meticulously building the show worn attire by the events dedicated cosplayers. As a photographer and a fan of the work they do, I am here for it all.
This year, time for actual shooting was a bit more limited. I knew going in, we were going to be opposed to the popular, and addmitedly easy to pull off show floor photo requests. We wanted to create a more believable environment for the glory of these subjects to be placed in. So we decided to utilize only the grounds located just outside of the Philadelphia Expo Center. Sara, (who once again this year kindly assisted) and I had the opportunity to shoot two sets. The cosplayers featured below allowed a few minutes for us to work through the shoot in the pre storm humidity. I think the decision paid off versus last years photos.
The photos were all shot under mid day sunlight. To avoid such unpleasant lighting, we positioned our subjects under a pre-scouted patch of defused shade. For lighting I utilized an extremely portable 3’ octobox purchased from the folks at Adorama. This became the subjects main light source. I also had a secondary light in the form of a small speedlight, which was utilized in a few different ways. Thanks to the genius of MagMod, quick and easily swappable color gels were installed for additional mood within the cosplayers environment. These magnetic gels are great for working fast, and as you can clearly see the red gel was especially helpful in making for a believable fall off of light from Darth Talon’s Sith inspired lightsaber. Unfortunately because lightsabers still don’t exist in reality, (btw I’m not getting any younger can this happen soon, please) the effect was instead created within Adobe Photoshop… Boo.
Darth Talon (above)
Starship Troopers (below)
Thanks for checking out our small slice of the 2019 Comic Con experience, cosplayers are credited below.
Joe Colton Cosplay featured as Darth Talon. Check out her awesome work under the following social handles
Instagram: @joecoltoncosplay
Facebook: @joecoltoncosplay
Twitter: @jcoltoncosplay