[Shinonome Akito cosplay] Project Sekai Campus Late summer daily life Record

This time, I shot this AkiToya photoset together with Xiao Yu Zai, with the theme set as a Late summer daily life campus vibe. We found an outdoor venue with stairs and railings and captured that natural, relaxed atmosphere. The weather that day wasn't particularly hot, and there was an occasional breeze, so the shooting process was quite comfortable.

In terms of costume preparation this time, the biggest challenge was actually replicating the details of the ties and jackets. We tried our best to choose materials close to the original design; although a hoodie was added underneath, the overall look didn't seem too bulky. Both the blue and orange wigs took a long time to style, especially the direction of the hair ends; to make it look natural, we didn't use too much setting spray to lock them completely, but instead smoothed them out bit by bit along the shape, so they had a highly realistic flowing feel when the wind blew. For the makeup, we tried to choose a clean, daily-use base makeup without over-emphasizing eyeshadow, relying more on the details of eyelashes and eyeliner to restore the characters' eye characteristics. The lip color was also selected to naturally boost the complexion, which, combined with the skin's inherent texture under natural light, appeared softer.

During the shoot, we tried to relax as much as possible without making too many exaggerated movements. In the first set of solo photos with bouquets, the flowers each of us held were also carefully chosen after a long time; the white flowers and sunflowers paired with the dark blue school uniforms made the entire frame look exceptionally clean. When interacting as a duo, we casually put our arms around each other's shoulders, alongside candid shots of us naturally walking forward on the stairs. The photographer Xiao Yu Zai is great at capturing those casual, fleeting exchanges of glances. We even kept cracking up in the behind-the-scenes outtakes because we couldn't help but suppress our laughter when looking at each other, which gave the final photos a highly authentic sense of intimacy instead.

For the post-processing, I wanted to retain a transparent feel akin to Japanese fashion magazines, without intentionally jacking up the contrast or adding heavy filters. I mainly brightened the skin tones a bit, and preserved the original yellow and green hues of the leaves and fallen leaves in the background. The overall color palette leans towards soft and gentle, not glaring at all, perfectly echoing our established theme of "End of Midsummer" (真夏の終わり). For this kind of daily-focused photoset, the absolute biggest taboo is having too much of a forced, posed look. We tried our best to design the movements to feel as if they were casually snapped on the way to the convenience store to buy a bottle of water after class.

Speaking of which, this school uniform is highly recognizable; the moment you put it on, you immediately get the vibe of the character. Especially when shooting on the stairs, if you find a good angle, it's very easy to get great shots—gaining depth of field while losing none of the coordination of two people walking side by side. Another point was the lighting position during the shoot. The sun at two or three o'clock in the afternoon is actually quite strong, which easily causes the hair to overexpose from reflections, so we waited until the clouds partially blocked the light before frantically pressing the shutter. I feel the best few photos this time are still those moments when we were moving on the stairs; although it was posed, our footsteps truly stepped on the stairs rhythmically, and this dynamic feeling breaks beautifully through the static frame. Moreover, neither of us deliberately tried to act cool; it was just a very plain, calm interaction—maybe a quick exchange of looks before continuing to walk forward. I feel this state fits the characters' everyday vibe perfectly. Recording it this way is wonderful—no need for a magnificent visual impact, just a simple routine that remains enduringly beautiful.