Different Opinions of Cosplay

Actually, cosplay is an activity which has a lot of controversies.
Some people love cosplay, and some other people do not like cosplay, indeed hate cosplay.
This time, I clear up those different opinions from different groups.
Most of young people can accept cosplay, it is a modern thing in the world, when it was brand-new, young people who loves comic, game and animation want to try to act a role from those stuff they love. And now, cosplay become a common activity, more and more cosplayers appeared in different countries, more and more amazing cosplayers appeared.
By a net citizen named Hazel Shotgun, she is a cosplayer and she said that she love to cosplay. So she shall continue to cosplay and cosplay is expensive. So she shall continue slowly.She also said that what I mention in my posts before, cosplay also includes acting and it is not only dress-up, so learn to act like your character if you consider yourself a cosplayer and not just a costume wearer and cosplayers need to enjoy cosplaying. Its an art.
But there still are some people have different opinion, such like a net citizen from Soompi named JaruJaru, he thought cosplay is stupid and cosplay is boring.
To be honest, most people think cosplay and cosplayers are none of their business, if cosplay would make some people happy, it doesn't matter.
For older generations, they cannot understand what is cosplay, this is a gap between different generation, such like some people don't understand rock music.
In my opinion, cosplay is a happy activity, we as cosplayers, can learn a lot of things from it, cosplay makes us happy and this is a important way to show how we love a character or comic, game and animation.

Image from: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2536670385

Photoshop skill of cosplay

Today I will show you some skills of cosplay's Photoshop! I took cosplay photos at the night after Halloween. This was the first time I took cosplay photos in the U.S. and I felt excited! And now I'd like to share some Photoshop skills with you.

Before PS
Cosplayer Name： Asami-Mio( me )

After PS

From the before-PS picture, we can find the chiaroscuro is obvious and the color of my eyes is obvious, I need to change them.

First of all，duplicate the layer，then Layer Properties choose overlay, opacity 43% ，after this step，picture will like this：

we can find chiaroscuro became apparent

Second，choose Merge Visible and duplicate the layer，choose soft layer and opacity 39% ，then Merge Visible. We can find at the right bottom corner of this picture has some pink things, it is not the stuff that allowed to appear in this picture, so we need to use Clone Stamp Tool to make it disappears. After this step， picture will like that：

And I also find that there are something wrong with my makeup, because of the flash, my makeup become soft. For change it, I need use Dodge Tool and Burn Tool and then the makeup will be good and my eyes will look bigger lol.

My skin is not very well, I have acne，for solving this problem，I need to use Spot Healing Brush tool

Now，guess what？ There are no acne on my face！ I also find my tongue prosthesis does not look well，actually I think it doesn't look like a tongue, so I use Dodge Tool and Burn Tool make it look better.

Now it looks better. Last but not the least step is change the color of my eyes.
We need to use Hue/Saturation and then choose coloration, making my eyes redder.

We finish it! The picture looks better now!

This is the first time I use English to make a Photoshop tutorials， I wish it would be helpful! Thank you guys!

Best Halloween in the U.S.!

This Thursday, with other Chinese students, we celebrated our first America Halloween. I just want to say, it was awesome! Thursday night,people worn costumes and had amazing makeup, it just perfect!
As a cosplayer, I'd like to help other people preparing their makeup.We have wonderful time in Burger Stand!

Model: Sam Zhu
I took this picture

Model: An awesome lady in Burger Stand
I took this picture

Model: Arvin Zhang(My most successful makeup model!)
I took this picture

Model: Arvin Zhang
I took this picture.

Model: Arvin Zhang(He got top 3 in Burger Stand Costume Competition)
I took this picture

Model: Arvin Zhang   PS: Alex Gao   Photo: Alex Gao

For this wonderful night, we also took some interesting videos.

How to take cosplay photo shoot in the night？

In Halloween season, cosplayers want to take cosplay photo shoot in the night, it is a kind of amazing experience, so do I. Today, I'd like to introduce you how to use speedlite in night photo shoot.

First of all, we need two speedlites and one DRL camera.(My stuff are YN560-III, YN560-II and Canon 60D with 50mm 1:1:8 II and 16-35mm)

 YN560-ii Image from:http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=FOScKf-0xniwAM&tbnid=4SgDikKwAGKhcM:&ved=0CAgQjRwwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clickbd.com%2Fbangladesh%2F966674-yongnuo-flash-yn-560-ii-with-warenty.html&ei=ZOBxUsz3JLDesAS8toFI&psig=AFQjCNFNEVWpzlHRXCGT3NCsDOsAisLNog&ust=1383281124679395

YN560-III Image from: http://plazakamera.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/jual-flash-yongnuo-yn560iii-pk-01.jpg

Canon 60D Image from： http://i3.sinaimg.cn/IT/digi/digi_dc/document/2010-08-27/U803P297T7D51758F2353DT20111216161237.jpg

Arrangement of the light source as this picture show you.

I made this picture

Use 4 Channels Wireless/ Radio Flash Trigger Set With 2 Receivers, then you will have a picture like this:

I took this picture.

By using this way, you can take cosplay photo shoot in the night~
I hope you will enjoy it~

Trick or treat! Halloween and cosplay!

Next week！The biggest festival for cosplayers will come！Halloween is coming！
In China，we do not have chance to celebrate it except some Halloween comic-cons, but now, we are living in America, I am looking forward the wonderful Halloween party!

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a secular, community-based event characterized by child-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating. In a number of countries around the world, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people continue to usher in the winter season with gatherings, costumes and sweet treats.(Halloween introduction from: http://www.history.com/topics/halloween)

For preparing Halloween parties, we need wonderful makeup to make us stand out, there are so much Halloween stuff in Walmart and Halloween stores, prosthesis will be helpful! We can also find some Halloween makeup videos in Youtube, all of them are amazing!

This guy wears a kind of prosthesis
Image from:https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=
rja&docid=Rwn4SDs2QhcdM&tbnid=IMymnjiuMeSOGM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2F
www.caufields.com%2Ffoamlatexghoulappliance.aspx&ei=VlhpUpT_HtCgkQfs34CYAg&psig=AFQjCNH5Nmc
96OmGASxCOiDEUx-r05ix8w&ust=1382721992722146

In Halloween, people love to makeup as zombie，vampire，we can easily find this kind of videos in the Internet. There are two short videos, teach us the awesome makeup skill.

I cannot waiting for Halloween, so I try to makeup half of my face,it is just a try! Wish you guys could enjoy your Halloween!

Maybe she is a old zombie? Have a good time guys!
I took this picture.

Best places to take cosplay photos!【part 2-South Korea&the U.S.】

If you're not a Chinese cosplayer, you can also find some awesome places that you can take awesome photos.
I went to South Korea before, and now I am living in the U.S..These two beautiful country will be examples in my post.First, let's talk about the beautiful places in Korea.

I took this picture

This is the capital city of South Korea, Seoul.I took this picture in Seoul Tower, the landmark of Seoul, from this picture we can find that Seoul has nice view, we can take some smartness cosplay photos here.

I took this picture

This is another landmark in Seoul named Gyeongbokgung Palace, in ancient Korea, person of royal lineage lived here. We can take wonderful ancient cosplay photos here.

I took this picture

This is another big city in Korea which is near the sea, this is Busan. This city have nice climate that you can take good photos any time. Because of the sea, you can make your cosplay photos cleaner!

I took this picture

This is a picture near the sea, Busan's citizen have clear sky and clear blue sea.

I took this picture

This is Taebaeksanui, all we can see is snow, there are several wonderful snow mountain, without frog it will be a nice place to visit and take photos.

Then, let's talk about the U.S..I have been there just for two and half months, I just went to Topeka, Lawrence, Kansas City and Chicago, but I feel America's beauty, if I could take cosplay shoots, I will do it!

I took this picture

I took this picture

I took this picture

Three pictures above are all taken from Topeka downtown and Washburn University, different culture gives us different chance, I can find beautiful view anywhere in America.

photo by Arvin Zhang.
Image from：http://m.qzone.com/l?g=99&g_f=2000000122&&B_UID=446183010&sid
=AbL7sZ3cuyggAb6_5IPcbi6b#photo/
V14KJLmo3EtacR
?res_uin=1005371209&photo-priv=1&photo-allow=1&photo-type=0&slideView=true

I took this picture

I took this picture

I took those photos in Kansas City and Lawrence, they are different with Topeka, more like big cities.

I took this picture

I took this picture

I took this picture

I took this picture

I took those photos in Chicago between my fall break, I must say that Chicago is an awesome city, even if it has large wind! I think cosplayers can take any kind of cosplay shoots here!

Cosplay just like a trip, we live in all the beautiful views!

Best places to take cosplay photos!【part 1-CHINA】

As a cosplayer, I must say, I always look for nice places to take awesome cosplay photos, when I arrive in a new place, the first thought in my mind is:”I think it is an awesome place to take cosplay photos! This place just likes where I saw from the comic book.”

Make a right choice to the place where we can take cosplay photos is an important part of cosplay shooting. I will show you some places that I had been to, or where I took pictures, I hope that would be helpful.

Let's start with China, my hometown.

photo by：Xinyue Gao（Alex）

This is Shanghai, I took this picture in Tianzifang. You can take some soft cosplay here, such as 君に届け

photo by：Xinyue Gao（Alex）

I took this picture in Jiayuguan，a beautiful city near my hometown. There is a beautiful place after raining.

photo by：Xinyue Gao（Alex）

photo by：Xinyue Gao（Alex）

These two pictures took in Dunhuang, a part of silk way. In there, you can play the character from comic books like MAGI and ONE PIECE.

Image from：http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2560603264

All of them took in Beijing Dashanzi Art District，there are so many abandoned factory, if you want to play the character from DRRR, you can choice this place

Image from：http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2560603264

We took those picture in Hengdian, a city belongs to Hangzhou province. Hengdian Movie and Television City is a place so-called East Hollywood. Many famous movies and TV series were born here. It has so many different part such as Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, Hong Kong street, Guangzhou street, and so on.

image from：http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2560603264

We took those picture in Lanzhou. Because I live in Lanzhou,so I am familiar with this beautiful city.

Cosplay just like a travel,finally，we will reach the place we want to go.

Next post will talk about beautiful place in Korea and America, all of them are great to take cosplay photos!