Cosplay Magic: The Art of Photographer Mike Kowalek

Mike Kowalek is a Canadian videographer and producer and he works in many different broadcast productions, including a weekly talk show. Outside of his job, Mike has a strong passion for photography and cosplay. If you look at his pictures below and at his website, eleventhphotograph.com, you can see the levels of skill he applies to every photograph he takes. In this interview, we talk to the multi-talented Mike Kowalek about how to take picture with cosplayers, does being a cosplayer himself help his work and what makes a picture a work of art.

What were you like before you discovered your skill with the camera?

I was born in Rome, and spent some time in Poland, but have lived most of my life here in Canada. It wasn’t terribly long ago that I became interested in photography, so I’m almost the same person before and after. However, it has made it easier for me to interact with models and people in general; being able to communicate properly with people of various statuses and abilities is important; both for this hobby and my profession (more on that later).

How you were first acquainted with cosplay and photography?

I first saw “cosplay” on a TV program back in 2003. By 2004, I had decided to attend my first convention, Anime North, in Toronto. At that point, I borrowed my friend’s camcorder to simply record some video. Nothing too exciting. The following year, I cosplayed for the first time and it was an awesome experience. I made new friends and contacts and I knew I wanted to do it again. I did take a few photos with my parent’s film-based camera and filled up a whole roll of 24 photos! It was later on in 2008, I believe, when my dad had bought me my first DSLR, the Nikon D40 with an 18-200mm lens, for my birthday. A great toy of course but I didn’t have too many creative uses for it back then. I took it with me during our Euro-tour and took plenty of photos. It was small and light which was nice. I eventually realized, that with the DSLR I had, I could be taking more artistic photos and focus more on creative shots. I should note here that photography wasn’t too different than what I was doing at school at the time, which was working with video cameras in a Broadcast Television program. I’m now strongly sandwiched between both photography and videography.

Does your experience as a cosplayer help you as a photographer?

Maybe a little bit, I didn’t do too many photoshoots as a cosplayer, and I currently cosplay a lot less, but have still have some big cosplays planned.

Outside of cosplay and photography, what do you like to read or watch?

I don’t read too much nor do I watch much as well. There are some novels that I’ve read which I enjoyed, and I’m currently reading the latest Halo novels. I keep up with several manga series at the moment, though Death Note and Akira are my favorites, followed closely by Trigun. I watch some TV shows that I buy on DVD since I rarely watch actual TV anymore, shows like The Office, Married with Children, Heroes, and a few anime shows right now. On the side, I also read different photography magazines to get my fill.

Why do you feel cosplay is becoming more popular worldwide? What is the allure?

It’s one thing to hear about something crazy, and another watch something weird on T.V, but to be there in person and see the oddity in person; it just sort of puts a smile in disbelief and awe on your face. What do people tend to do when they see something crazy? Naturally, want to take a picture of it, whether with a smartphone or Point and Shoot camera. From there it becomes like a photography sinkhole. They’re entertained by the cosplayers. They enjoy taking the photos and showing the photos to their friends. They then decide to go to another convention because they had fun at the last one (whether they ended up there by accident or on purpose in the first place), and they, of course, make sure to bring a camera along for the ride.

With DSLRs being fairly cheap nowadays, plenty of people own one, and simply asking someone if you can kindly snap a few photos with your camera is pretty easy. I guess you could consider this the next step in the sinkhole of photography. The novice photographer enjoys taking the photos because it’s an easy subject to approach and photograph. This gives them the confidence to try and do it again and hone their skills further, maybe even convince them to purchase more equipment if they feel the need to.

So I guess you could say the allure of cosplay becoming more popular worldwide is the fact that as more people witness cosplay effortlessly via internet and images, the more are familiar with it. And the more people that become familiar with it are likely to cosplay themselves.

What mistakes do amateur photographers make generally in photographing cosplayers? What can they do to avoid them?

The two big ones that stick out to me are lighting and composition. I’ll address the question from the perspective of someone using a DSLR to take photos rather than a smartphone or P&S. Composition-wise, remembering the rule or thirds and filling the frame properly are the basics, based on those rules (which can be broken!) you would employ your creative genius to make the photo more stimulating.

For example, having a shot of a warrior cosplayer standing straight in front of you with their sword across the shoulder can look okay, but keeping the rule of thirds in mind and filling the frame with only what is needed; you could have the cosplayer point their sword directly at the side of your lens, set your aperture low to get a shallow depth of field, tilt the camera a bit, have them yell as loud as they can, and finally press the shutter-button to capture the moment of intensity.

The other mistake I see a lot is in the lighting, more often than not you’ll want have the cosplayer facing the sun or the main light-source. I notice some photographers won’t have their models turned properly and end up having the models face (or other important features) covered in a shadow, not a pleasing result. The face is often the focal point of the photos, so you want to try and expose properly for it if that’s your main visual attraction. Have the model tilt their head up a bit, it provides more light to underneath the eyes, and helps expose the face better overall. You can also use a reflector which are pretty cheap, or even make your own using a piece of Bristol board. You’ll be surprised what a world of difference they can make.

That said, I’m technically an amateur myself in photography, but believe I have some good points to provide.

What exactly makes a photograph a work of art, in your opinion?

Tough one, but I’d say if the piece is in some way emotionally engaging then its “art.” Regardless of how the photograph was taken, if I say “that’s cool,” then it’s probably not doing its job very well. Being very subjective here, if I say “whoa, I love the soft lightening on her face, makes her look like she’s thinking about something sad” or “the heavy winds really help give the impression that the model is soaring freely and her genuine big smile proves it,” those pieces says a lot more to me because it hints at some sort of story or narrative that you can derive from it and become connected.

That’s the best answer I can give, from my mind.

What were some of the challenges you’ve faced in your shoots? How did you overcome them?

Time! You can’t imagine how fast half an hour can pass by to a photographer. I normally ask the model how much time they have to spare before starting the photoshoot to give myself an idea of what I can try and do in that timeframe. Some of the other challenges include trying to find an appropriate location, even a small secluded corner can work, but it’ll need to suit my preferences for the photos I want. If you’re in a location where there are many people around, try and locate yourself to a secluded area, use a shallow depth of field to isolate your subject and work with what you have. That’s one of the “perks” of doing cosplay photography at conventions. It forces you to think how you’re going to shoot.

What camera(s) do you use and why? Which programs do you use to enhance your photos?

I started off with the Nikon D40 and moved up to the D90 after about a year and a half of use. I then purchased the Nikon D7000 when it came out which is my current camera. I’m hoping that Nikon announces and releases the D800 sometime soon. The current lenses I own are the 17-55 f2.8, the 85 f1.4D and the 80-200 f2.8 ED. Previous lenses I have owned include the 18-200, 10-24 f3.5-5.6, 20 2.8D, and 50 1.4D. As I stated earlier, my dad is the one who bought me my first DSLR and it so happened to be a Nikon (he did some research and made a decision based on that). Today, when I look at the controls of any Canon DSLR, it throws me off completely. I find the controls a lot more intuitive with Nikon DSLRs. Though the Canon cameras do have some great video capabilities which tend to make me jealous, you can’t go wrong with either brand.

My workflow includes transferring the images off my camera, organizing the photos in Adobe Bridge, going through and selecting the keepers, editing the keepers in Camera RAW, then finally choosing the real keepers to upload. I try and keep my photoshoots from 4 to 12 photos at the most, it can be sometimes easy to choose 12 keepers, and sometimes be difficult to choose even 5/6. I tinker with the edited RAW files for the next 1-2 days (several times going away and coming back saying “yeah that doesn’t look good, lets change this”) to make, I think, how they should look (much like a writer looks over his work to check for any mistakes or make any improvements). I, then, run the final RAWs through a Photoshop script to give me the final results for the web.

Do you work with any themes in your shots?

I’d say themes are more of a subconscious thing for me. I usually try and capture the character in a situation they’d be in (as much as the location allows), or I’ll do the opposite and get the cosplayer to be out of character and simply get some fun shots. Either way, themes aren’t anything that I focus too strongly on.

What current projects are you working on?

Current and on-going projects include me attending more conventions and doing more photoshoots; Con-G and Katsucon being the next ones in February. Beyond that is Anime North, Otakon, Otakuthon, Fan Expo, possibly Dragon Con. As I mentioned at the start, I’ve gone to school for Broadcast Television and currently work as an associate producer for local community programming. I shoot video for a living. Naturally, I want to try and do some more video-based projects in the future involving cosplay. I do convention videos (funvids as I call them) but plan to expand more on that later on. Production videos take a lot more time, work, preparation and equipment then either photoshoots or con vids, so it’s something I’ll be slowly moving towards to.

Where can someone contact you if they are interested in working with you?

They can e-mail me and we can chat from there. I’m usually pretty lenient and easy-going so don’t be afraid to ask anything.

Share with us three of your favorite pictures and share with us the stories behind them.

Tough decisions, though they may be some of my “favorites,” I may not necessarily consider them as my “best.”

Photo 1 – The character is TK Slicer Baka from the series 3A. The resulting photos from the photoshoot were for the first time something that really got me excited about the final product. The photos had such a fresh and strong feel to them that it just made me more confident about different shooting and editing styles. This photo in particular shows off most of the costume with a nice rusty matching prop left standing in. The cosplayer featured here is the awesome Iridiescent_Fall, aka Chantal.

Photo 2 – The character is an original, Goat Warrior, designed and created by the lovely Alex, aka Yagi Mazaki. This is a shot I’ve sorta wanted to try for a while, and finally the day arrived when I snapped the resulting piece. The setting worked well with the costume, the hand-casted skull in particular. I find the photo has a delicate yet be-cautious feel to it, just what I was looking for.

Photo 3 – The character is Yoruichi from the anime series Bleach, cosplayed by the talented MeltingMirror, aka Megan. This is another photo that I finally had an opportunity to capture with the right character and location. The tiles on the ground give the feeling of cold solitude with the cosplayer giving a look of desperation and a desire for escape. The eyes turned out pretty cool for the final edit here. I think you really can reach a person through their eyes.

*****

If you want to see more, check out his amazing photography here!