Japanese Pop Culture Convention

Here a some of my favorites from a convention I went to on the weekend. If you take a look please leave your thoughts good or bad (be as brutal as you like) I would like to improve

Cheers

1)

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/iscariotau/7020​071031/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/iscariotau/6871​100914/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/iscariotau/7017​171561/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/iscariotau/7017​009179/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/iscariotau/7016​980983/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/iscariotau/7016​975589/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/iscariotau/7016​945873/

These events always look good fun to attend!

Couple of comments, is the first image a person or a mannequin? Also in the shot taken outside in the sun I would have tried to use fill flash or something that was around as a reflector to lighten up her face under the umbrella.

Great is this a worldwide thing as it happened in Bahrain last Friday

Terry_Hill wrote in post #14167226
These events always look good fun to attend!

Couple of comments, is the first image a person or a mannequin? Also in the shot taken outside in the sun I would have tried to use fill flash or something that was around as a reflector to lighten up her face under the umbrella.

Terry

Thanks for the feedback.

The first shot is actually a person. I have a few more of her and her friend in my Flickr account.

Security were not allowing the use of reflectors as they seemed to feel that it was indicating commercial photography. Your right though I didnt think of using my flash for fill out side although I used it for fill flash indoors.

I really wish I had of so that the woman in black and white would lose the shadow from the umbrella

Garry Spight wrote in post #14167311
Great is this a worldwide thing as it happened in Bahrain last Friday

Garry

Yeah its on again over two days here in September. There is actually a competition and the winners go to Japan to complete in the Cosplay world titles apparently.

cosplay and steam punk..nice!

Yeah, nice shots but I would echo the first comment, I think lighting could use some work, maybe also try tighter focus / narrower DOF.

Thanks for sharing these, this is a neat little look into a very interesting culture !

Hoy fellow cosplay photographer

All of these have nice poses and expressions, I like that. Beware of your framing, though, #3 and #7 have no feet and a lot of space obove their head.
Also, don't be afraid to ask cosplayers to move a bit in order to have a more neutral background. It's very distracting on #3, #5 and #7. If you really don't have any available, shoot at the widest aperture possible (ugly backgrounds is one of the reasons I shoot with primes a lot, the other being the lack of light inside conventions). #4 works better thanks to the more or less unified background.

Ashura wrote in post #14229904
Hoy fellow cosplay photographer

All of these have nice poses and expressions, I like that. Beware of your framing, though, #3 and #7 have no feet and a lot of space obove their head.
Also, don't be afraid to ask cosplayers to move a bit in order to have a more neutral background. It's very distracting on #3, #5 and #7. If you really don't have any available, shoot at the widest aperture possible (ugly backgrounds is one of the reasons I shoot with primes a lot, the other being the lack of light inside conventions). #4 works better thanks to the more or less unified background.

Thanks for the feedback. I did get the aperture wrong this time round but live and learn. The venues here in Australia make it very difficult to get decent backgrounds especially inside. But you are right one of the things I like the least about these shots and the others in my flickr account are the back grounds. I shall work on it next time round.