[Miyazono Kaori cosplay] Your Lie in April, reliving that classical music romance

This time shooting Miyazono Kaori from Your Lie in April, I put a lot of thought into the preliminary preparations.

In terms of clothing, the grey blazer needed to have a crisp cut, revealing a light blue shirt at the neckline, paired with a red-and-white striped tie and a grey-based black-plaided pleated short skirt. Since the character has a clear campus identity, I chose dark brown buckled loafers and black knee-high socks, which firmly established the overall JK uniform feel. The yellow-backed, black-bordered shield-shaped badge on the left chest of the blazer and the golden buttons on the cuffs are all small details that enhance the accuracy of the restoration. The wig is light golden long straight hair, with trimmed bangs styled to fall naturally. The makeup focuses on the eye makeup, keeping it clean in the 3D world while fitting the 2D aesthetic, and the lip color is chosen as a bright true-red tone to brighten the complexion.

In terms of props, the violin is the soul. To avoid looking awkward while holding the instrument, I specially looked for some references before the shoot, adjusting the posture of holding the neck with the left hand and the bow with the right hand—such as placing the violin on the shoulder as if playing, or holding it in my arms and placing it on the ground. Besides the violin, a magazine and wired earphones were also prepared. The earphone cord hung down naturally, which, combined with the posture of sitting on the desk, nicely expressed the character's casual state of listening to music daily. The use of the magazine was a spur-of-the-moment idea; holding it in front of the face or putting it on top of the head broke the deadlock of routine posing and added a bit of playfulness.

The shooting location was chosen to be a real-scene studio decorated like a classroom, featuring wooden desks and orange chairs, along with simulated sunlight to create an afternoon classroom atmosphere. The lighting was very transparent; under backlighting and side lighting, the blonde hair had a great luster. During composition, I tried multiple angles: crossing legs on a chair, kneeling on the ground, playing the violin while sitting on the desk, and leaning on the ground with legs extended diagonally. The combination of black stockings and the pleated skirt has a visual effect of elongating the leg lines, so we adjusted the sitting posture and leg placement angles for a long time, striving for naturalness and tension.

In terms of color grading, I didn't excessively pursue the extreme cool pale skin of the Japanese style, but instead graded it according to the warm tones I felt comfortable with, preserving the layers of light and shadow and the authentic texture of the skin. Throughout the whole set of photos, I was searching for the character's complex feeling of appearing lively on the outside while being somewhat melancholic and firm on the inside. Capturing the gaze is key; being relaxed in front of the lens and bringing a slight smile helps express the character's vibrancy. The whole process went very smoothly, and the photo-output rate was quite high.