[Nian Cosplay] A Folding Fan and a Warm Light Greeting the New Year

I rushed to shoot this New Year cosplay set two days before Chinese New Year's Eve. The timing was just perfect—it captured the festive holiday atmosphere while avoiding the struggle of booking a studio on the holiday itself. For the venue, we chose an old house with traditional Chinese carved wooden doors and windows, laid down a white high-pile rug, and arranged some golden leaf branches borrowed from a friend. Hanging the red "Fu" character with black ink and spring couplets on the wall instantly brought out the lively buzz of the New Year. Knowing that the character I was going to shoot has a joyous nature and dragon characteristics, I chose a white modified cheongsam (qipao) for the outfit. Featuring a halter-neck style with black piping, the chest and hem are embroidered with red silk thread dragon patterns. Paired with this rather unique red-base gold-green dragon-patterned armguard in my hands, the entire look is heavily packed with Chinese-style photography elements. Wearing a string of green jade beads on my wrist served as the finishing touch; the clashing red and green colors are highly eye-catching under the warm lights. Props were the focal point of this shoot, so I prepared a bamboo-framed oil-paper umbrella and a black-and-white folding fan. Since the skeletal structure of the oil-paper umbrella is relatively complex, during the shoot, we had to find the right angles—either half-closing or fully opening the umbrella—and use the transmission of light to highlight the graphic lines of the ribs. The folding fan was even harder to put down once I started playing with it; the exact moment of opening and closing, coordinated with my gaze and movements, carried a highly distinctive vibe where martial arts (jianghu) and myth interlace. To recreate the feel of this Arknights character, styling this long white straight wig alone took a lot of time. Paired with pointed ears and red horns, I had to repeatedly adjust their positions during the wearing process so they would naturally blend with the hairline. For the face makeup, I deliberately used cool-toned highlights to balance the red eyeshadow, paired with light blue circle lenses to make my gaze more focused on camera while creating a sharp contrast with the warm, passionate scene. When shooting such Chinese-style photography pictures that interact with props, hand gestures are extremely critical. The folding fan transitioning from closed to open, or holding the oil-paper umbrella slightly tilted overhead, both add beautiful extensibility to the frame. For the shoot, I used a Sony A7R5 paired with the Sony FE 28-70mm F2 GM (2870GM) lens. The high resolution of the full-frame sensor indeed made the detail presentation of this Anime-style photography impeccable. When doing the post-processing for this set of photos, I especially loved looking at the raw images captured by the A7R5—whether it was the strands of the wig, the embroidered textures on the armguards, the bright green circular jade pendant hanging below the folding fan, or even the woven grid details on the inner layer of the oil-paper umbrella, everything was exceptionally clear. The 2870GM could lock focus steadily even when the indoor lighting was not very bright. Coordinated with backlighting or sidelighting, the golden leaves and white hair strands revealed a soft rim light in the frame, making the overall color tone feel very warm. The shooting poses were also repeatedly pondered—there was an interactive pose of half-kneeling and pointing the fan at the lens, as well as a pose of sitting sideways on the ground with my legs stretched out and the fan placed beside me, extending a sense of frame composition. This kind of high-dynamic-range scene is quite a test of controlling the contrast of the on-site light, but the high dynamic range of the A7R5 prevented noise from appearing when brightening the shadows in post-production. Overall, what I wanted to express in this set of photos is the character's elegant yet refreshing appearance during the Spring Festival. Because it was shot before the New Year, the process of unpacking, styling this costume and props, and finding the perfect lighting angles repeatedly felt like drawing a ceremonial period to the year. Now that the final photos are out, this entire red-and-white color scheme combined with the golden leaves truly lets the festive holiday atmosphere be felt right in front of the screen.