[Himeko cosplay] Honkai: Star Rail, the Clash of Red Hair and Wanchuan

This set of photos truly makes me feel a love-hate relationship, especially that blue-purple overhead light at the exhibition hall hitting the white dress and red hair; the post-color grading directly broke me down. The photographer said the light was too messy, with skin tones and environmental colors pulling back and forth, and towards the end of editing, I even wanted to give up, but seeing these final photos made me feel it was worth it. This time I'm cosplaying Himeko from Honkai: Star Rail, just in time for the creator incentive program, which also counts as adding a sense of ritual to archiving these cosplay convention photos.

First, let's talk about the costume. The layering of this outfit is exceptionally strong, featuring a white bandeau base with gold embroidery, paired with a black-based short jacket on the outside, and white petal-like panels on the shoulders and cuffs that float along as I walk. The lower body is a white high-slit long skirt, and that black-based gold-trimmed rose patch on the hip is highly eye-catching, with a bright red hem lined inside that perfectly echoes my red hair. The shoes chose a black chunky-soled Mary Jane style; the ankle strap design makes the ankles look very slender, and the overall color scheme of red, white, black, and gold conversely collided with a powerful visual contrast under the convention hall's cold lighting environment.

The wig stylist handled it very meticulously this time, sandwiching small golden flowers between the hair strands, and adjusting the curves of the bangs and sideburns several times. Although the stylist self-deprecatingly named themselves as having 'crap photography skills,' the wig styling was actually perfectly in place. On the day of shooting, the venue was quite crowded, so we temporarily found a relatively empty hallway with metal railings and arches as the background. The floor tile reflections were very noticeable, just right reflecting the shadow of the skirt hem. In the squatting and sitting poses, the skirt hem spread out over the tiles, with the red base backing the white tulle, offering a richer texture than when standing.

In fact, as a coser, the biggest fear during every outdoor or convention shoot is the on-site lighting fighting with the costume colors. This time, the blue-purple studio-like light made the white dress look cold, requiring independent color extraction and correction in post-production, and after grading, my entire skin tone had to be rebalanced. Fortunately, the red color was not washed out in the final photos, and the light yellowish-green colored contacts in the eyes also preserved that glass-like texture as a red-haired character. The standing pose chose a front full-body shot, with the slit revealing leg lines, cooperating with a slightly raised arm to keep the overall aura quite stable. Meanwhile, the sitting poses and half-body close-ups lean a bit softer, beautifully catching the dynamic movement when the hair floats up.

After shooting, I felt that although this costume has many details, it's still quite convenient to move around in. The black jacket can be worn half-off and half-on, and the convention hall had plenty of air conditioning so there was no need to worry about catching a cold. The drape of the skirt hem and the light transparency of the tulle show different layers during walking, which poses high requirements on lens expressiveness. We didn't prepare large props this time, mainly relying on the outfit's own structure and hair color to reinforce recognizability, which in hindsight was also a challenge. Ultimately, although the color grading process of the final photos was tortuous, the resulting color conflict turned out to be unexpectedly dramatic; perhaps this is the unexpected surprise of the so-called 'Honkai' style. This project was a great practice for convention photography.