Better Cosplay Poses

Your costume looks great! Someone wants your picture! ….and you just stand there with a goofy smily, feet together, arms at your sides… Don’t just stand there! POSE! But how!?

Cool poses are how you sell your costume to the camera. Your pose completes your costume by putting you into character and giving your outfit context. Without a good pose your costume isn’t going to live up to its full potential. No one wants a picture of you blankly staring at them, even if your costume is the best they’ve ever seen. The photographers want a little bit of acting, attitude, and style. People appreciate it when a cosplayer looks rehearsed, and they really appreciate it when a whole group of cosplayers can get into an interesting pose quickly and make it look natural. Group shots that are well planned are some of the most impressive photo-ops that a convention has to offer.

How can you pose better? All it takes is a little practice.

You can start off by drawing the poses that you want to enact. Not too many, start with three or four. When I say draw, I don’t mean that you have to be an artist. Just do a little stick figure doodle of different poses that you think would look cool. If they look good as a doodle on paper, they will probably look good in person. This is especially helpful for group cosplays because it allows you to get all the messy coordinating out of the way on paper, and it allows you to show people where to stand without showing them physically where to stand.

Practice your poses in a mirror and as a group if you are cosplaying as a group. You need to see what you look like in order to get the pose down right. Have your sketch handy so that you can refer back to them, and talk to each other about how to change things up. Once you have your pose down, practice getting into pose from standing so that when someone stops you at the con, you all know where to go.

What are some good rules for creating a good pose? Generally speaking you want to lift your limbs away from your body. The idea is to break up your silhouette to make your pose very readable in any light. Always lift your elbows beyond the point of feeling stupid, and spread your legs in an uncomfortable fashion as well. Typically the more uncomfortable you are, the better you look. Also always try to stretch while posing. If you are standing, elongate your neck and spine. If you are pointing, really point. Over articulate everything. If you are squatting, get really low until it burns. Which brings me to my next piece of advice: start doing squats. It will help you hold those low poses longer without shaking.

When planning a pose you want to think in levels. You need to fit your group into a fairly small space in order to all fit inside the camera lens. In order to do this, you need to stack people. Have some people reaching up high and elongating, while others are crouching, or even sitting.

STRETCH AGAIN! Start stretching daily to improve your range of motion. On the day of the convention, take ten minutes to get in a good stretch before the convention so that you are all warmed up and ready to strike some intense poses.

Don’t forget the face. Practice in a mirror from time to time and find your best angle. Do you look better with your chin up or down? Straight on or head slightly turned? Remember what your face feels like when posing so you can recreate the look for the camera without the help of a mirror.

That’s about all there is to it! Keep these things in mind and you will be posing like a pro in no time. Please feel free to look through some of my cosplay pictures to get a better idea of how to coordinate a group pose if you need more help.