[Ling Cosplay] Arknights, the Drunkenness and Chivalry in "A Invitation to Wine"

Actually, when standing in front of the lens, I felt a bit nervous inside. This "A Invitation to Wine" themed outfit, with its wide robes, large sleeves, and iconic lantern and wine gourd, inherently carries a highly heroic martial arts aura. However, my personal character is actually more introverted and meticulous, so I was initially very worried that the shoot would look like a forced imitation and feel awkward. The moment I received the raw photos and saw myself seriously pondering over my expressions, I really couldn't help but mock myself a bit—it seems I'm truly detached from that innate, free-spirited temperament.

However, putting aside subjective feelings of whether the temperament fits, the shooting process of this set of works itself was still highly enjoyable. The details of the costume were more numerous than expected; the white outer robe paired with the blue-green lining, along with that layer of brown bamboo-slip-like sheet structure on the lower hem, provided highly unique movement feedback when walking. The combination of the wig, dragon horns, and ears, plus that soft illusion-colored long tail behind me, truly took me nearly two hours to adjust their forms during the early preparation phase.

The shooting venue was chosen in a very classic Jiangnan garden, featuring winding corridors leading to secluded spots and pavilions built over water. The water lilies on the surface and the lush greenery in the distance natively matched the character's color palette and this Chinese-style cosplay martial arts atmosphere for this garden photography. Many thanks to the photographer Shenfu; he paid great attention to utilizing wooden corridor pillars and window lattices as foreground frames during composition. The shot in Figure 4, where I'm sitting on the corridor railing with the long tail and long staff crisscrossing, cleverly exploited perspective relationships to capture a sense of depth. The movement in Figure 2 is one of my personal favorites: a tip-toed, leaning-forward standing posture, which beautifully brings out the leg lines and the silhouette effect of the waistband.

The weather on the day of the outdoor shoot was excellent. Before shooting, I was actually worried that the light and shadow would be too flat, but the natural light and shadow in the garden dappled softly down through the hollowed-out lattice windows of the ancient architecture, creating gentle transitions of light and dark across the clothing. In post-processing, we experimented with a color scheme leaning towards cool and cyan tones to make the overall atmosphere of the frame colder and quieter, a color grading that beautifully suits the character's own attributes. The long staff and wine gourd among the props did have some weight in hand, making my arms a bit sore midway through the shoot, but to present that feeling of strolling leisurely in a courtyard, I still had to try my best to keep my posture stretched out.

Although it's hard for me to be truly unrestrained and free-spirited like the character, being able to experience the mindset of another personality through this costume and props during the character accuracy restoration process is also a highly meaningful thing. This sense of contrast exactly became the unique fun of doing this Anime cosplay setup. By the time the final photos were finalized, the satisfaction of trying my best to present the setting already overrode that initial bit of self-doubt.