[Ellen Joe cosplay] Zenless Zone Zero's Shark girl, archive photo of white shirt paired with silver pendant

Jumping straight into the theme of this archive photo: this casual outfit look of Zenless Zone Zero's Shark girl Ellen Joe has been sitting in my post-production archive for a while. Taking advantage of some downtime at work, I pulled out the raw photos and retouched them again. The lighting and styling performance in the original photos were both quite good, but I hadn't found the right time to organize them into a complete set of convention/retouched photos to post. Today, feeling relaxed, I retouched a batch.

The main features of this styling in the photo focus on the detailed recreation of hair color and eye makeup. The wig was specifically chosen as short black hair with distinct layering. The red gradient at the hair ends was done very naturally, not like a jarring dye job, but closer to the character setting's slightly sharp yet lazy red. Managing this kind of short hairstyle really tests the flow of hair strands; if it's slightly sparse, it looks frizzy, but the combination of hair density and wax in this photo looks just right in texture.

The eyes were also a key focus of this cosplay. I used contact lenses with a red pupil effect, paired with red-brown eyeshadow deliberately blended on the lower eyelid and subtle skin-texture makeup under the eyes, giving the gaze a unique, slightly raw and sharp feeling. This small detail in eye makeup actually takes quite a bit of retouching effort: you have to maintain color saturation without making the eyeshadow look swollen. In post-processing, I deliberately preserved the makeup texture under the macro lens.

In terms of clothing, instead of choosing heavy, complicated combat gear or battle suits, I went with a more casual white shirt. The fold-over stand collar design is clean and neat, and paired with the contrast of the thick black choker around the neck, the combination of white and black creates a sharp visual contrast in the frame. The silver metal pendant held in my hand is a highlight; its three-dimensional leaf- or shell-like texture, with defined edges and curves, reflects light noticeably, serving as a local accent that boosts the recognizability of the entire styling. Dangling the pendant with one hand, combined with a lowered gaze looking straight into the camera, effectively conveys this Shark girl's unique 'there's really no helping you' tsundere vibe.

When retouching, I deliberately avoided over-smoothing skin filters, preserving some of the natural light and shadow textures of the skin itself. Because the base makeup and facial contours were already sculpted with shadows and highlights, forcing a heavy skin-smoothing filter would instead erase the layers of the makeup. The embroidery texture on the collar and cuffs of the white shirt was also sharpened in post-processing to give the thin shirt some thickness and refinement. For this kind of casual cosplay share in Cosplayer daily life, rather than gorgeous backdrops and complex special effects, I prefer focusing attention on conveying the details of the styling and makeup itself, allowing viewers to more intuitively feel the character's aura in a relaxed state.

The shooting angle was actually just a very natural half-body close-up. The composition didn't leave excessive negative space, but paired with this slightly scrutinizing gaze, it created an emotional interactive feel. After finishing this archive photo, I felt that the efficiency of this 'slacking off at work to retouch archives' was actually much higher than batch-producing official sets, without the constraints of assembly-line poses and retouching templates, which fits today's casual social sharing atmosphere much better.

Overall, the finished photo after this retouching basically met my expectations for this styling back then, with character motifs such as makeup, hair, accessories, and demeanor well-integrated. As a recreational result during retouching breaks, posting it serves as a closure for my previous photoshoot. Without deliberately pursuing high artistic photography, it at least ensures a cosplay photo with clearly identifiable character traits—clean, direct, and carrying a hint of Ellen Joe's unique aloofness and casualness.