Hello i'm really new at photography I use a Nikon D3000 camera that I take with me to conventions. I know it takes time to learn but Id really would like to get a good idea of how to start. I really would like to learn alot more about photographing cosplayers such as angles etc light etc.

Ive read a whole book on my camera telling me how to change settings etc with lots of detailed information. However i dont know what would be the best settings for cosplay and the best editing software.

Id appreciate tips so that i can learn over time and hopefully improve over time

Hey!

It's great to see somebody getting into photography! and I am happy to give any tips that could help

First of all, I want to point out that I use Canon so I don't know the technical side of Nikon (as in where on the camera to access the stuff I will talk about) but if you are confused your hand book/ google can help

There isn't any 'correct' cosplay settings to have on the camera as it differs depending on where you are. If you are starting out using the manual settings on the camera (that is controlling aperture and shutter speed) then I would suggest photographing people outside in day light. This would give you the best chance of getting good images at a nice exposure. I shall give you a few tips now that could hopefully help in photographing people as well as anything but the main tip I can give is to keep practising and it will all become very easy

1 - Make sure to focus on the persons face. Easiest way to do this is to make sure your camera's focus point is in the middle (google if you don't know how to set it on your camera). Focus on their face (half press the button) re- compose the shot so that the picture looks how you want it to look and then take the picture (fully press the button). Practice the focus technique on things around the house so you know how far to press the button etc

2- try modes such as Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority- these modes are present on most cameras and I think are represented by the S and A on the little mode wheel (again google if confused). These modes will give you half control over the settings and will ease you into the understanding of how the camera works. The settings I would use on these modes would be Shutter Priority: 1/125 and Aperture Priority: f8. These would be good settings for outside

3- take inspiration from other photographer- I still do this today. Look at different photographers to see different angles to photograph the cosplayers. Maybe they have a great weapon that you want to make the centre of the shot or maybe shooting from a lower angle will suit the stance. This all comes with practice but always think about the different angles you can shoot rather than just at your head height. Look for a ledge to stand on to gain a little height or get onto your knees to photograph the person. They will follow your camera so don't worry

4- Fill the Frame- the one thing that you can immediately see the difference with is when you fill the frame with the person. Unless the background says something about the cosplay I wouldn't include it. Zoom in or get closer and make sure that person fills the frame. Your shots will improve straight away. If it is a group shot, make sure the group is the main focus not the background. You don't want the background engulfing your photo.

5- Always ask and say thank you after- It always makes me smile when somebody asks for a picture and thanks me afterwards so I think it is just polite to do so. It always engages the person and they look at your camera which always makes a better picture. Pluck up the courage and talk to the person and don't feel shy to try more than one image just talk to them

I think thats all I shall give you for now and I hope that all makes sense and I apologise for the length. Just remember to keep smiling and practice on things around the place before the convention. Look to other cosplay photographs for inspiration and always look for those different angles that will change the photograph. I always find that getting closer to the subject makes for a better photograph.

Good Luck and happy clicking

I'm also a new(ish) photographer and Puzzled Penguins advice is great, the best advice is just practice practice practice.

Nert also wrote a rather interesting guide which can be found here

This is great help thank you so much

Nert's guide is awesome and goes into detail about the points I just spoke about so I would use that as a guide. I would practice on small things like apples and stuff around the house or even siblings as models to get used to the Manual settings.

I forgot to mention editing software. Now I use Adobe Lightroom as it is so simple and easy to use but granted you most probably don't have money to spend on it and wouldn't recommend you spend money until you know its what you want.

GIMP is software that everyone keeps raving about. It is free and I know you can do many things that software like Adobe Photoshop lets you do. I haven't used it myself but there are guides out on youtube that can tell you how it works

Heya, I did two photography workshops at Amecon - one on posing and one on manual focusing. You can find the slides from these and a manual focusing tutorial here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d345txxslzpcras/HUtlv43zOH

We may consider rerunning these at other conventions in the future dependent on interest - we had a low turnout at Ame but can't tell if it's due to lack of interest or due to the workshops immediately preceding the masquerade and omake XD

Hey madmazda86, I was one of the photographers that turned up to the posing one and I found it great and really interesting but I think the name might have confused some people (I know there were explanations in the guide book) but my friend and I both assumed it was telling cosplayers how to pose, rather than for photographers as well as cosplayers, but I remembered seeing the post on here so I looked a bit further into it.

So I would definitely like to see it rerun. I would've loved to have gone to the manual focus one but it clashed with 2 other panels that I really wanted to go to as well so it was really a coin toss between which one I went to.

Hey, thanks for the feedback! We're thinking of rerunning the panels at Aya (probably not much call at Minami). The next posing workshop will hopefully have a longer time slot so we can do some extra stuff on holding weapons, face shots etc. If that happens I'll be promoting it in all the usual places

That sounds really interesting, I'll definitely being coming to listen if you re-run the panel at Aya.

Thank you for all the tips they are great haha. I want to be a cosplayer for a photoshoot one time too haha. I will get some practice with my camera at the J-con hopefully

I'll definitely be roped into running an Aya panel or two, just not sure what on yet! If there's demand for the posing or photography ones again then that can happen - happy to properly join Maz for a joint panel and not abandon her horribly like at ame

I'll see how the panel at Minami goes as that'll likely be on Cosplay Music Video stuffs since it's my latest experiment and decide what'll go down better at Aya