[Kasumizawa Miyu cosplay] Street Casualness and Autumn Contrast Under the Blue and White Sailor Suit

I re-sorted and retouched two pictures from this set of photos from the beginning of the year. Looking back, I can indeed very clearly feel my progress in aesthetic taste and retouching techniques, allowing me to once again polish the initially slightly flat light and shadow into an atmosphere that better fits the character.

The theme this time is actually quite special, and it describes it very accurately to use the line from the post: 'I am a little, most inconspicuous pebble by the roadside...' There is no gorgeous scene layout; it's just an ordinary green plastic floor track under an urban overpass, with the most common blue recycling bin in real life placed next to it. My outfit is a classic blue sailor suit with white stripes, which looks quite pure and neat on the body, but this time I deliberately layered a black tactical vest and multi-purpose straps, adding a sense of capability and tactical elements to the originally highly daily wear to form a unique tactical sailor suit look. The white long socks and white sneakers, along with the white rabbit ear headpiece on top of my head and the glowing halo effect, formed a certain contrast in frame colors with the surrounding warm autumn colors.

On the day of shooting this set of photos, the ground was covered with golden autumn leaves, and those scattered red and yellow leaves truly added a lot of color to the frame. In terms of using props, I chose a white long-handled umbrella and a pair of black binoculars. The umbrella can be held in hand to make some blocking movements, while the binoculars can coordinate with the gaze to increase the character's sense of narrative in front of the lens, having a sort of playful spirit of 'observing in secret' or 'patrolling around.'

What's quite interesting is the interaction with that blue trash can. The first standing pose is relatively standard, holding the umbrella and binoculars, quietly taking a photo with this daily prop. The second semi-squatting pose has me casually taking off the blue trash can lid and putting it on top of my head, instantly creating a highly nonsensical and cute comedic effect. The third picture is absolutely the soul of the full set of photos; I sat directly on the edge of the trash can body with my legs tilted up, holding the blue lid over my shoulder as a shield. This pose actually has high requirements for movement coordination; you have to sit steadily without looking too constrained, while also balancing facial expressions and camera angles, capturing a relatively relaxed one only after shooting several times. The fourth picture has me sitting sideways on the edge of the trash can, hands still holding the binoculars, looking at the lens. This angle displays the details of the tactical vest and the cut of the clothing very clearly.

During the post-processing phase, I focused on adjusting the overall color base this time. Autumn sunshine inherently has a warm and lazy trait, so I pulled the overall tone towards a soft, warm direction, lowering the contrast of the background urban buildings to make the background blur softer, so that the character could 'pop' out of the background. In addition, regarding that white halo on top of the head, because it wasn't in the original shot and needed to be added in post-processing, it heavily tests the ability to blend light and shadow; it must look as if there is genuinely a light source lighting up on top of the head. The folds on the clothes, the texture on the white stockings, and those autumn leaves sticking to the body all underwent some texture enhancement in post-processing.

In fact, doing cosplay photography is an embodiment of creativity at every step, from early conception, clothing preparation, makeup and hairstyle, to light capture and movement guidance on the shooting day, and then to fine retouching in the later stage. For this set of photos taken at the beginning of the year, I can still find places that can be optimized today, showing that I am indeed constantly practicing and accumulating in this ACG outdoor location exploration. Treating every press of the shutter seriously, and also treating every click of the mouse seriously, to restore that vivid, light, and slightly alternative character image in my mind—this is my greatest motivation. Being able to present the best state of this set of pictures is a very fulfilling thing for me.