Cosplay Photographers: Where Would We Be Without you?

You know what I love most about debuting a new cosplay at a convention? The amazing photographers, who take the most incredible photos of my newest creations.

Cosplay photographers really make cosplaying worth it, and without them most of us wouldn’t have any recognition, or amazing pics of the cosplays that we do. So I find it strange and unjust that people make complaints about cosplay photographers. I’m not speaking of the group “Cosplay Photographers” per se, I am referring to those select photographers who attend cons to take amazing pictures of cosplayers.

I don’t think people realize how hard a lot of these photographers work at conventions. I have seen some photographer friends of mine run around the con constantly for shoots. To name a few, Cantera Cosplay, Cozpho Photography, DROO Photographer, Soulfire Photography, A.G.Vask, Yenra Photography, and Dawen Huang schedule several photoshoots per day at a con, every hour on the hour. Some doing shoot after shoot after shoot. And they know exactly what to do to capture the perfect images of cosplayers.

When you see these images of you taken by a photographer at the con, don’t you feel ecstatic? Happy that you look so great in your cosplay? Happy that all your hard work has paid off, and that your cosplay came out perfect, and is now captured in a beautiful picture?

The obvious answer is yes. So you post it up on Facebook, Deviantart, Tumblr, etc., but don’t credit the photographers? I am in no way, shape, or form a photographer, and I know next to nothing about the art of photography. These photographers are some hard working people, they spend their time editing, cropping, in some cases even photoshopping pics of us in our cosplays, so that we look flawless in all the pictures we are in, the least we can do is credit them.

In some cases, I have seen cosplay pics posted up, and the photographer’s watermark is actually blurred out! That is not right. They took that awesome pic of you, you should credit them. Something else that I have noticed is some people actually steal pics from photographers to use, and claim as their own. In some of the before mentioned incidents some cosplayers have sold prints of said picture without consent from the photographer, and without mentioning the photographer at all. This is not a singular offense either, there have been several cases of this happening.

A new story, that I have only heard of starting this year, was photographers getting kicked out of cons because they use free standing equipment. At first when I heard about this, I chalked it up to the incidents that happened at Katsucon with the security shutting down these photoshoots due to the other con having priority in the said space, or due to it potentially being a fire hazard. Whatever the reason, it means some photographers can’t take pictures of the cosplayers at the events they attend. It is a weird occurrence, especially after hearing about Elysiam Entertainment’s experience at C2E2 in April. He was actually press for the con, and was still told he couldn’t use his equipment, while other people were been using the same equipment, and were not asked to leave. I really hope this isn’t a constant ordeal for photographers at conventions now.

My final topic is those who are angry that some photographers charge for photoshoots. What I feel what people need to realize that some photographers do this for a living. If it is an issue for some cosplayers, there are other photographers who shoot for free. But to bash and demean anyone because of how they go about their photography business is wrong. If they are using your image to make a profit off of you, that is also wrong, and you should make sure that doesn’t happen to you. For something like that, you need to have signed a Model Release form.

At the end of the day, if we didn’t have cosplay photographers at cons we wouldn’t have such awesome pics of our cosplays. Photography is an art form, and these photographers who take these pics of us are true artists. And to those who cosplay AND do photoshoots I salute you. It can’t be easy doing both. Cosplay photographers are important to this community just as cosplayers are.

Please remember to show your appreciation to any photographer who takes pictures of you in your cosplays, for their hard work, and for making us look epic in their pictures!