[Cirno cosplay] Dreamy Close-up of the Ice Fairy from Touhou Project

It has been a while since we finished shooting this photo set. Today, I happened to stumble upon these raw shots and decided to clean out my phone's gallery inventory. This is Cirno from Touhou Project. When we first decided on this theme, I really wanted to challenge myself to capture a crystal-clear yet playful atmosphere.

First, let's talk about the details of this outfit. The character's iconic light blue short hair serves as the foundation of the look, paired with a large blue bow that features white fluffy pom-poms, making the head look round and cute. The overall costume adopts a multi-layered Blue and white Western-style dress design with impressive fluffiness at the hem. The stacked ruffles and lace give the skirt a doll-like 3D feel even when completely still. Red bows and white laces accent the chest and collar; although they don't take up much area in terms of color, they serve perfectly to brighten up the overall palette. Furthermore, to fit the Ice Fairy setting, the photographer specially prepared several rainbow crystal prisms as props, which created incredible light and shadow refraction when held.

During the shoot, we experimented with three completely different visual expressions. The first composition sitting on a high stool is my personal favorite: a pose with legs slightly crossed paired with the prism prop and a serious expression, conveying cool aloofness and elegance. The second dynamic pose—jumping on one leg with one hand raised high—greatly showcases the skirt hem. The skirt's swallowtail-like shape paired with holding up the crystal adds a strong sense of airflow and agility to the frame. As for the third moment, squatting and covering my face, it was actually an unexpectedly caught moment. I just wanted to take a short break, but the photographer caught it on camera. Hiding my head in my hands created a cute gap moe contrast against the cool aloofness of the previous two shots.

Here, I also want to give a special thanks to photographer @Jiuzhe. These were candid shots taken along the aisle of an anime convention. The original environment was actually very cluttered, but the photographer made great use of post-processing desaturation, muting the background display stands, chandeliers, and passersby into monochrome gray, while retaining only the original colors of the costume and skin. This minimalist black-and-white background created a striking visual contrast against the colorful crystal prisms on the character, keeping colors focused on the character itself. The TFP (time for print) collaboration that people often mention is precisely this kind of positive interaction—free from commercial constraints, allowing both sides to freely experiment with imaginative poses and compositions in Convention photography.

Speaking of Cirno, although many players' perception of her stays mostly on ice crystals and bullet-hell Danmaku, her persona—seemingly cool yet actually carrying a bit of tsundere charm—is visually very suitable to express through this Blue and white Western-style dress. On the day of shooting, foot traffic inside the convention center was quite heavy and the venue's lighting was relatively complex, but being able to produce a set of photos like this in such a limited environment is truly rare. Through costume styling, hair ornaments, and crystal props, I was able to immerse myself better into the character while posing. This immersive photoshoot experience is also what touches me most about Anime cosplay as a hobby.