[Kuriyama Mirai cosplay] Meeting Beyond the Boundary in the Autumn Colors of Chongqing University Huxi Campus

Choosing to shoot this set of Kuriyama Mirai cosplay at Chongqing University Huxi Campus was because the autumn colors of this plane tree boulevard are just too perfect for a Japanese-style campus vibe. Since the middle of autumn, I had been thinking about this tree-lined road, and had scouted the location a few times in advance to observe the movement of light at different times of the day. On a sunny day, the sunlight filters through layers of leaves on the Huxi plane tree road to form many light spots, casting interlaced patterns of light and shadow on the ground and fallen leaves.

For this actual shoot, we mainly worked with a telephoto lens. The image compression brought by the telephoto lens is indeed very prominent; it pulls the background canopy and branches closer together, stacking them to create a visual impact of golden colors blanketing the area. Moreover, this compression effectively avoids some random cluttered objects that occasionally appear on the road, such as distant trash cans or archways, which become soft and unobtrusive under the telephoto blur. When using a large aperture, precise control of the focus point becomes crucial. Since telephoto lenses inherently have a shallow depth of field, if the focus does not land exactly on the character's eyes, the entire face will merge with the blurry background, losing image sharpness. Fortunately, the lighting for this shoot was excellent, and the camera's autofocus system tracked very steadily, capturing several very clear and vivid close-ups.

Another aspect I was highly satisfied with was the convenience of the Huxi venue. Many outdoor shoots are actually on mountains or in relatively remote neighborhoods, where carrying gear and walking can be physically exhausting—especially in late autumn or early winter when the temperature drops at night and physical fatigue increases significantly. However, at Chongqing University Huxi Campus, vehicles can be driven very close to this tree-lined road. All camera bags and fill light equipment can be easily moved over without carrying them back and forth. This allowed us to focus more of our energy on finding angles and capturing expressions, which significantly boosted our efficiency.

Now let's talk about some subtle ideas in the makeup and styling. The character Kuriyama Mirai has short pink hair and glasses, paired with a blue-and-white sailor-collared top, a pink cardigan, and a green-and-white plaid pleated skirt, giving her a very soft and cute temperament. To match this environment more naturally, we didn't do anything too exaggerated with the hair and makeup, keeping that pure, everyday feel of the original setting instead. The combination of black tights and black leather shoes also gave a focal point to the overall colors, so she wouldn't look too light against the fully yellow-toned background. The outdoor wind is relatively strong in autumn, especially at the wind gap formed by tunnels, making it easy for hair or skirt hems to get messy. Although this might disrupt the intended positions, as long as we made good use of the wind, occasionally capturing moments where hair strands or the skirt hem were stirred by the breeze actually gave the photos a strong sense of agility and life.

During the post-processing of this set, I paid close attention to controlling the lighting ratio. The translucent parts of the leaves were prone to overexposure, so I locally reduced the highlights to preserve the layered texture of the leaf veins, giving the frame a sense of depth. Meanwhile, the lighting on the character's face was mainly natural light in the early stage, and in post-processing, I needed to brighten the skin tone just a bit to make the visual feel more comfortable. During the shoot, I also guided the coser to blend into this relaxed state, instead of staring rigidly at the lens, she could look at the fallen leaves or the distant road, so that the captured expressions would be more natural and vivid. Experiencing the whole process, this shooting method of relying entirely on ambient light and a telephoto lens creates a transparent feel that is characteristic of Japanese-style outdoor campus photography. The overall atmosphere and detailed portrayal of this outdoor shoot make it one of my most satisfying Cosplay photography sets recently.