[Nian cosplay] Arknights Sui Sisters, Bamboo Forest Limited Headhunting Record

This two-person location shoot completed in a bamboo forest is themed around the Sui sisters from Arknights. The environment chosen is a dark-toned wild bamboo forest; the woods are dense and the lighting conditions are relatively complex, which actually makes it perfect for creating a deep and slightly mysterious atmosphere within the trees. The two outfits feature red-and-white and cyan-and-white color schemes, which instantly pulls up the contrast against the dark background.

Nian's costume is red and white, with a modified short top on the upper body paired with white shorts and black tactical straps, plus red beast horns as headwear and messy white long hair—the whole look presents a dashing and capable feel. Dusk's styling, on the other hand, features cyan-green beast horns and long hair, a modified cheongsam miniskirt with a blue-and-white porcelain pattern, plus a fluffy big tail and a huge folding fan in hand, leaning more towards a calm and mysterious texture.

Doing a two-person location shoot is actually quite challenging. We spent a long time in the bamboo forest figuring out different camera angles and light placements. The photographer wanted to express the texture of a game promotional image. This idea of "shooting a gacha banner poster" gave us a strong sense of purpose when posing, including the waving of the feather fan, the dynamic capture of the long tail, and the interplay of our respective handheld props. Although we only moved through a few spots, walking and transitioning within the bamboo forest was still quite physically exhausting.

In post-processing, we leaned toward the texture of the "Hidden Moon" banner, adding UI elements similar to the game's gacha page to the image. For the layout, we chose to use character half-body close-ups paired with the classic five-star limited tag, combining real-life photography with Anime-style photography visual design. To prevent the UI from looking stiff, we deliberately preserved the plant details and rim lighting of the scene when handling the dark tone of the bamboo forest, so that the graphic text elements above could better blend into the image instead of floating on top.

Regarding this set of works, especially for us, this kind of highly recognizable Chinese-style cosplay anime theme has very high requirements for detail restoration and atmosphere creation. We chose the bamboo forest as the main scene, also considering the fit between the real environment and the character's background settings. The straight lines of the bamboo and the mottled light and shadow happen to set off the texture of the characters' hair and the agility of their clothing. Being able to shoot such a style in a real location was a very pleasant cooperative experience for both the shooting team and ourselves, and the overall final photo results are very much to our liking.