[Hu Tao cosplay] NARAKA: BLADEPOINT Cherry Blossom Cloud Celestial Maiden, Bringing the Hot Spring Wonderland into the Studio

Shooting this Cherry Blossom Cloud Celestial Maiden Hu Tao cosplay photoshoot was, for me, a deep immersion into this nimble character from NARAKA: BLADEPOINT. The color scheme of this costume is visually very exquisite; large areas of pink light gauze paired with a white-and-red lining. When wearing it, you can clearly feel the lightweight and breathable texture of the fabric, which also heavily tests the arrangement of details while putting it on. For the wig, I specially chose a layered light pink hair color, paired with the plush animal ears crafted by Youran; the fuzzy texture and pink transition are very natural. The moment I put on the animal ears and forehead ornament, the overall aura of the character was instantly established.

This time, we chose the wonderland-themed Guotai Studio to shoot this set, and the entire environment was arranged to be very immersive. The on-site stone hot spring pool was the core scene; a smoke machine was turned on in the pool, leaving a thin layer of white mist floating on the water surface. Combined with the warm yellow tall lanterns nearby, it instantly transported people into a Japanese-style or traditional wonderland atmosphere. When sitting on the edge of the stone platform, because the shoot required bare feet, the surface of the stone platform was actually quite chilly, requiring constant adjustments to my sitting posture to keep the leg lines extended and natural in front of the lens. At the same time, I am very grateful to the photographer Dada, who patiently guided me all along, capturing natural expressions such as tilting my head or looking away.

To enrich the visual elements, we prepared two main sets of props. The first is an oil-paper umbrella decorated with a large amount of artificial pink flowers and ribbons, used to match the compositions of Figure 1 and Figure 3. When the umbrella is opened, the lightweight feel of the tassels fluttering in the wind echoes perfectly with my attire, especially in a side-sitting posture, which beautifully balances the center of gravity of the subject in the frame. In Figure 2, I experimented with an interaction holding grapes; originally, this prop was intended to add a bit of a life-like vibe, but unexpectedly, the plump color of the red grapes and the bright pink main color scheme blended together to offer a nice warm-and-cold contrast visually, making the image much more vivid.

The overall presentation of makeup and styling was inseparable from the continuous assistance of our logistician Lingxi; the positioning of the animal ears, necklaces, and straps required multiple fine-tunings to be properly fixed. Although the workflow of organizing while shooting stretches the time a bit, these details absolutely cannot be neglected if you want to ensure the high precision of the final photos. The wooden background window frames and the subtle pine tree patterns on the back wall also added a lot of ancient style charm to this set as a beautiful piece of anime-style photography. In fact, playing this kind of fantasy character usually requires maintaining full emotions in a cold setting, but when the lighting and smoke coordinate perfectly, one can completely immerse themselves in this hot spring dreamland belonging to Hu Tao. I hope to deliver this atmosphere of coexisting coolness and sweetness to everyone in its original form.