From Shameimaru Aya cosplay in the morning to Momiji Inubashiri in the afternoon, completing two Touhou Project character shoots in a single day drained far more physical stamina than expected. The morning's black hair and elf ear look mainly featured red-and-white braided cords, white pom-poms, and a red tokin hat. Holding a large bouquet of autumn maple leaves as a prop, we chose a roadside location to match the autumn ambiance. Passing traffic caused drastic shifts in lighting back then, requiring leaves to block out glare from cars behind us. Red colored contacts paired with elongated eye makeup gave my facial features a sharper edge. With cars passing by occasionally, we waited by the roadside for quite a while to ensure safety, spending most of our time catching clear gaps between traffic.
In the afternoon, I switched to the white hair and Animal ears look. The biggest challenge of this outfit was securing and balancing the large plush Animal ears, where the weight of the headpiece relied entirely on hidden clips for support. The costume featured abundant black and gold floral embroidery, paired with a dark red sash and deep burgundy skirt. Cradling a chibi plushie matching the outfit, I finished shooting the remaining photos on a lakeside wooden boardwalk. Water reflections softened the costume's appearance, though they were prone to overexposure, requiring us to adjust metering points. The makeup changeover time was tight, and I had to touch up setting powder twice to keep sweat from ruining the base makeup. The contrast between black and white hair was very distinct—wigs, eye makeup, and lip color all had to be readjusted, and even the perceived shape of the eyes changed visually due to the hair color transition.
A practical tip is to bring plenty of spare fashion tape and double-sided tape, especially when shooting dynamic poses prone to sweat and oil, to prevent wigs and garments from shifting. Costume adjustments were also needed between takes, as lace embroidery around the waist easily creased out of shape. Moreover, although these were two completely different looks, both shared a core red-and-white palette, so I coordinated the props and clothing choices around these two colors to maintain visual harmony.
Overall, this high-intensity shoot was a true test of physical endurance and styling control, yet the final results matched my expectations well. Sorting through photos after the shoot revealed small flaws unnoticed in the viewfinder, such as a stray strand sticking out from the wig or awkward glare on the doll's red button. In post-processing, I mainly refined dimmer skin tones and adjusted facial light and shadow to enhance catchlights in the eyes. While the lakeside boardwalk was scenic for Outdoor photography, mosquitoes were abundant, requiring several sprays of repellent as a minor interlude. Throughout the day, I changed through two outfits and tweaked makeup several times. Though exhausting, the entire experience felt complete, striving to align every detail with the original setting. The night before, we had planned lens focal lengths all evening—using a telephoto lens roadside in the morning, and switching to a wide-angle lens by the lake in the afternoon to capture the surrounding environment. This fast-paced switching kept my focus sharp, leaving no time for distractions other than observing the frame in the viewfinder and ensuring catchlights in the red pupils looked natural. White wigs reflect light easily, so avoiding overhead direct light was key. When removing makeup at the end, looking at the red eyeshadow on the cotton pads, the fatigue of the entire day finally surged in.