[Cartethyia Cosplay] Studio Photography Log of a Blue and White Fantasy Spirit in Wuthering Waves

In March's studio shooting schedule, this Cartethyia Cosplay look was decided upon under the premise that the studio's blue background had already been set up.

My favorite part of the entire costume is the design of the white main body paired with a black lining, featuring a pattern of intertwined black lines across the chest. The blue gradient fabric of the lower body is very light, giving it a strong sense of drape and a breathable quality that moves with the wind when hanging from the arms and back.

The elf ears were manually adjusted in size to fit the facial contours perfectly. To capture a flowing feeling with the blonde wig, we used a fan on set for quite a while. The white vine headpiece was secured into the hair strands using fine threads, which created a naturally growing effect without looking too abrupt.

The staff with lightning special effects served as the visual centerpiece of this shoot. Although the staff itself is relatively light, adding the post-processed lightning effects gives it a much heavier visual weight. On set, we needed to find angles to integrate the blue and white lightning effects with the blue gradient of the costume while maintaining the weapon's levitating feel; during the shoot, I would intentionally keep the bottom suspended to create a dynamic illusion of casting a spell using these cosplay props.

The advantage of white studio photography is the clean lighting. The light blue background paper, combined with rim lighting, beautifully carved out the blue gradient contours on the edges of the costume. The black circular platform also provided a relatively stable ground support.

During the shoot, I experimented with different gestures. The hand holding the staff slightly lowered the center of gravity while the other hand was naturally raised, a posture that better presents the character's temperament and agility. The makeup focus for a fantasy spirit character is typically placed on deepening the eye contours and defining the eyelashes, and wearing blue colored contact lenses also determined the direction of the gaze's focus.

This shoot required a high sense of visual weight for the props, so during lighting setup, we specially used a bottom light to illuminate the semi-transparent material of the staff, which, combined with the white ambient light, helped reduce the heaviness of the shadows. The overall makeup leaned towards clean and natural. To complement the crisp blue and white color scheme, a nude-toned lipstick texture was chosen so it wouldn't steal the visual focus from the costume and staff.

In post-processing, I mainly balanced the blue and white tones and retained the sheen on the costume's surface without excessive skin smoothing, hoping to present a texture close to the original design. This set of photos turned out to have a higher compatibility with the scene than I expected, completing a highly accurate recreation of the character's atmosphere.