[Li Muwan cosplay] Renegade Immortal red attire and golden crown, embarking on a jianghu journey with Wang Lin

This Renegade Immortal shoot was a long-awaited plan of mine. To present the best possible result, we began preparing costumes and props half a month in advance. The weather on the shooting day was fantastic with strong sunlight, so we deliberately chose to shoot after 3:30 PM, utilizing backlight for the shots. Wearing this deep red wide-sleeved robe, wrapped tightly layer upon layer, coupled with the heavy golden hollow-carved hair crown on top, I instantly understood what it felt like to experience 'ancient costume torture.' To ensure the crown wouldn't fall off when running and turning, we used a bunch of bobby pins to secure the hair and wig together. My scalp was pulled very tight, which involuntarily made my gaze turn cool and distant.

In terms of makeup, to highlight the facial three-dimensionality, the base makeup was kept relatively fair, and the eye makeup adopted an earthy-tone base deepened with a reddish eye tail blend. The red huadian between the eyebrows was painted on. After putting on the golden tassel hairpin, I had to walk extremely steadily, as even slightly larger movements would cause the tassels to tangle together. As the portrayer of Li Muwan, the white floral and butterfly embroidery on this outfit was extremely exquisite, and the outer sheer gauze layer had a wonderful flowing feel when the wind blew. To capture a nice arc of the skirt hem, I was actually clutching a corner of the dress in my hand the whole time to control its direction.

Working with my partner Dongqing was a blast. He cosplayed Wang Lin this time, and styling his long white hair took a considerable amount of time. To make the white hair look natural and glossy, a good amount of hair care oil was used, and we had to constantly flip it under the backlight to test which angle made the hair strands glow. His white robe featured black ink-line patterns, and holding a prop with black handguards, his aura standing in front of the ancient architecture was formidable.

The shooting process wasn't as relaxed as imagined. The single candid shot in the second picture was actually achieved after trying several times in a strong wind. We not only had to wait for the wind to blow the long hair and dress hem into the perfect arc, but also had to ensure facial expressions didn't collapse. During backlight shooting, a reflector was needed to fill in light for the face, otherwise the complexion would appear dark and lose details. The composition of the duo photos tested our tacit understanding even more. We needed to stand on specific steps, using the architecture as a background, constantly adjusting our positioning at the edges. In pictures three and four, I rested my hand on his lapel while he held my wrist; this kind of physical contact required an extremely high degree of coordination, as being slightly too far apart would look stiff, while being too close would easily block the light. The moment the shutter clicked, we had to remain instantly still, even slowing down our breathing.

When importing photos back onto the computer and seeing the sunlight hitting our outfits, the gold threads shimmering, and the red and white colors forming a strong contrast against the green leaves and antique architecture, all the fatigue vanished into thin air, despite the neck soreness caused by wearing the hair crown all day and the effort put into organizing the wig. I hope this finished set lets everyone experience the atmosphere of this scene, and I look forward to trying more different shooting styles in the future.