[Honor of Kings Xishi Cosplay] Shooting Share of the Mermaid's Song Little Green Dragon

This Little Green Dragon look from the Honor of Kings Xishi Mermaid's Song outfit is something I have always wanted to challenge. This time, I finally got the chance to wear it and fully record this shooting process from a first-person perspective.

The entire costume is dominated by white, cyan, and light gold in color, giving off a highly lightweight and detached feeling. The dragon horns of the headpiece are the visual focus of this styling; it needed to be firmly secured to my hair during the shoot, remaining completely unmoved even during head-turning actions, so I used quite a few invisible bobby pins and hairspray at the hair roots for support. The golden lotus accessory on the chest carries solid weight, beautifully neutralizing the flowing quality of the tulle skirt, making the character silhouette appear more distinct from the side. The prop dragon ball used during the shoot is a vital piece for this work; its light blue semi-transparent material generates beautiful reflections under backlighting or directional studio lights. To express the character's agility, I designed different hand-holding methods: from cupping the dragon ball upward with both hands like in Figure 2, to easily lifting it over my head like in Figure 4, and a composition in Figure 1 where I rest my chin in one hand to bring the dragon ball close to my body. Holding the ball heavily tests hand details because it requires avoiding leaving fingerprints on the smooth sphere while ensuring the most translucent side faces the camera.

The shooting venue was an indoor studio filled with Eastern classical flavor; the combination of a bamboo mat floor, pink flower branches, paper lanterns, and oil-paper umbrellas set a warm and gentle tone for the frame. However, this type of scene places high demands on lighting because the lanterns are a warm light source while the costume is a cool-toned cyan and white palette; handling the color temperature difference has always been a difficulty. Fortunately, the photographer controlled it beautifully this time, utilizing a high-power softbox as the main light source shining down from obliquely above to make my face evenly lit while preserving enough shadows to highlight the dimensionality of the nose bridge and eye sockets. The ambient light was a cool-toned blue, echoing the costume's colors, so the final exported image colors were extremely clean and translucent, fully demonstrating the artistry of Anime-style photography.

Speaking of the character's demeanor, the Little Green Dragon possesses a serene yet curious trait. When shooting close-up feature shots, I didn't need to deliberately laugh out loud or make exaggerated expressions; many times, simply lowering my eyelids slightly or looking up into the lens could convey a cool, serene yet slightly cunning feel. Since this outfit features very long water sleeves, to prevent the cuffs from bunching up at the wrists and looking bulky when lifting my hands, I had to consciously elevate my wrists during movements for this Mermaid's Song cosplay. However, these long sleeves also brought unexpected benefits; when the sleeves naturally draped down or were blown up by the wind, the frame possessed a strong dynamic fluidity. I remember that during the shooting process, to catch the most natural moment of the dragon ball's reflection, we would often shoot over a dozen frames for the same angle. When organizing the photos later, I also paid attention to preserving the skin texture, avoiding overly heavy skin-smoothing or feature-reshaping, focusing instead on dialing in excellent early lighting so that the skin revealed a healthy glow under the natural-feeling light. For me, doing cosplay is more about wanting to restore this character's leisurely and self-content life state. This look of the Mermaid's Song Little Green Dragon gave me an excellent sense of immersion; when investing myself into this character in front of the lens, I felt that I too quieted down. That's all for this work's sharing. I hope the ethereal quality and lightweight feel conveyed by the frame can be felt by everyone.