Behind the scenes

From reference pictures to reality
Jill sent me through some video of her character as well as a couple of stills which was really helpful in getting a feel for the character and deciding what sort of lighting choices would be appropriate. Here’s one of the reference images Jill sent me, a still from one of the Macross Frontier movies.

Taking reference material into account, I decided to use natural lighting  to give a soft look with the aid of a reflector. I figured that the large hat would probably shade Jill’s face in an undesirable way so the reflector would be especially important in bouncing light onto her face from the side or from below.

Location
I don’t know of any location in perth that has a field of flowers like the reference photo, however, there are a few locations with expanses of grass. I came up with the idea of buying fake white flowers, destemming them and sprinkling them around on the grass, as if Ranka were sitting in a real field of flowers. I knew this was a risk as fake flowers don’t always look good and I’m not confident that the final result is terribly convincing, but it was worth trying :)

Weather
There must always be a degree of flexibility with outdoor shoots; as we drove out toward our location, we noticed that dark clouds were gathering over the area. It’s always a good idea to have a backup plan with outdoor locations – either an indoor option or simply postponing to another date. We were lucky that it did not rain during our shoot, only some light sprinkle toward the end.

A blue sky dotted with white clouds would have fit better with the shoot concept, but the clouds provided beautifully diffused soft light so I was grateful for that. I wasn’t too keen to include the sky in any of my pictures though, see below:

Tip for grass when your model is wearing light coloured clothing: you can use spare bags for the model to sit on, this helps to mitigate the risk of grass staining.

Assistance
Teresa kindly offered to assist me on the shoot (thank you!!) and it was fantastic having someone there to help me. She had the fun job of holding the reflector and helping me fake sprinkle flowers on the ground. She also helped scout out the final location (with white roses) while I took pictures of Jill that did not require the reflector and contended with parents who wanted a picture of Jill with their 2 girls.

By the way, Jill made her dress in the day before the shoot, which is insane. That’s the kind of crazy productivity people have on an episode of Project Runway!

Credits

• Jill as Ranka Lee, Macross Frontier
  See her deviations here: Blue Journey, Hope assured, Embrace happiness
• Photography assistant: Teresa
• Photography and postwork: Sabatomic

Shoot photos

• Macross Frontier Cosplay: Ranka Lee, Part 1
• Macross Frontier Cosplay: Ranka Lee, Part 2
• Behind the scenes: Ranka shoot with Jill (this post)

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