[Yae Sakura cosplay] Honkai Impact 3rd Birthday stigmata real-scene restoration

What we shot this time is the Birthday stigmata styling of Yae Sakura from Honkai Impact 3rd. Because I personally love the design of this outfit very much, I've wanted to shoot it ever since I first saw the official illustration, and finally gathered everything to fulfill this dream in the studio.
After arriving at Tuntun Studio in the morning, the first thing was to start doing makeup and wearing the wig. The pink hair of this styling is actually quite tricky to manage; if it lies too flat against the scalp, it looks lifeless, so I gave the wig a bit of volumetric puffiness, focusing on building up thickness at the top of the head so that wearing those huge beast ears wouldn't make the head look top-heavy. The position and angle of the ears also had to be repeatedly adjusted to ensure they look natural from every angle. The blue hydrangeas and red bows on the head are the finishing touches. In terms of makeup, to make the eyes fit the character's anime cosplay feel, I wore light blue contact lenses, used a large area of pink-toned eyeshadow blending, matched with red outer eye corners, making the gaze look softer. The base makeup required a clean and clear look, because the color saturation of the entire styling is relatively high; if the base makeup isn't clean, the image texture will be greatly discounted.
Entering the official shooting session, the focus this time was lighting setup. Since the post mentioned simulating daytime lighting, doing this in an indoor studio actually tests lighting skills quite a bit. The studio itself has tatami and wooden architectural scenes. To simulate the feeling of sunlight piercing through shoji doors and spilling onto the wooden corridor, our main light used a large softbox, hitting down from an upper-diagonal angle to simulate daylight color temperature, and filled in with a reflector on the side to reduce the shadow contrast of the face. If we only used the top lights in the studio, the light would be too flat, losing that lazy afternoon atmosphere. To ensure that the cherry blossom branches in the background could also have vivid colors, we added a light with a CTO gel filter in the background to make the warm color tone of the entire environment more unified. I must say, the photographer's tuning of the light really made this pink outfit look particularly translucent, possessing a fluffy spring texture.
The shooting actions also revolved around props. I picked up a round fan and a wine pot. The round fan can be used to half-cover the face, which can very well modify the face shape while adding a bit of mystery and playfulness to the frame. In terms of sitting postures, I tried kneeling on a straw cushion and sitting on the edge of the wooden corridor with my legs dangling down. When letting my legs hang down naturally at the edge of the wooden corridor, to showcase the layering of the costume and leg lines, I would slightly tense my toes to make the legs look slender. Spreading out the kimono hem also required manual arrangement—not too messy nor too rigid, ensuring the frame looks breathable. For that photo leaning out half of my body against the door frame, we tried several angles, making sure the body presented a nice S-curve while allowing the gaze to accurately convey the character's trait of being somewhat sly yet gentle. Too dull a gaze would look blocky, while trying too hard would look deliberate.
This shoot was actually quite physically demanding because the costume has many layers, and combined with the weight of the wig and ears, I had to readjust the styling after shooting for a while. But after seeing the final photos, I felt all these preparations were worth it. The original illustration of this Birthday stigmata itself gives a very quiet and warm feeling. With the cooperation of the studio set design and lighting, the romantic atmosphere of the cherry blossom season was well magnified. I really like this attempt under daytime lighting; compared to the dark-toned style common in studio photography, this clean and bright color actually fits this outfit even better. I hope to have the opportunity to try more creations with different lighting in the future.