[Kokomi cosplay] Genshin Impact Sangonomiya Kokomi Glowing Jellyfish Umbrella Pier Night View

This set of photos themed around jellyfish actually took a much longer time than expected, spanning from early preparation to finally obtaining the retouched images.

Let's first talk about the most core handmade prop. The jellyfish umbrella is the soul of this shoot. The canopy uses a large area of semi-transparent sheer fabric and ruffled edges to simulate the soft silhouette of a jellyfish floating in the water as much as possible. The dozens of organza ribbons of varying lengths hanging below the ribs mimic jellyfish tentacles. To highlight a translucent feel at night, I arranged cool-colored LED beads with adjustable brightness inside the umbrella frame. This lighting method actually tests on-site cooperation quite a bit; the umbrella itself provides a key light plus a touch of top light, which beautifully isolates the subject from the darkness once the surroundings dim at night.

For styling details, I chose light-colored braided twin-tails. The makeup didn't feature overly dramatic eyeshadow transitions, focusing mainly on using subtle shimmer to brighten the inner corners of the eyes and upper eyelids, making the gaze look clearer at night. The costume is a custom blue-and-white gradient dress; the layered splicing of dark and light blue, along with a massive number of ruffles, offers great performance in front of the camera with the lace details on the cuffs and hem. The lower skirt hem was paired with white stockings and thick-heeled platform shoes with blue bows, so that when sitting on the edge of the pier, the lines and colors of the legs could form a clean contrast against the deep blue night sky and water surface.

The shooting location was at a riverside pier in Chengdu. The on-site light sources were quite complex; the distant city lights were warm yellow, while our prop light was cool white. To balance this warm and cold contrast, I had the photographer appropriately lower the camera's color temperature to highlight the cool-toned subject under the umbrella. During the shoot, because the ambient light at night was insufficient, the shutter speed was relatively slow. Therefore, we mostly chose sitting poses or movements leaning against the boardwalk to steady our center of gravity, while using chains and concrete pillars as support to avoid facial blur caused by shaking.

I must especially mention the reflections on the water surface. We deliberately looked for an angle where the ripples were very calm, allowing the light from the umbrella to reflect as completely as possible on the water, forming a visual extension similar to a glowing jellyfish trail. When organizing the photo sets, I am quite satisfied with a few wide shots of the environment. Because the umbrella was bright enough, combined with the golden shimmering light after depth-of-field blurring, it instantly maximized the ambient feel.

Of course, this outfit and the DIY props also encountered some trouble during the actual shoot. For example, there were many sheer tentacles, which easily tangled with each other when a night breeze blew, requiring effort to untangle before each retake. There were also many insects at night; staying by the pier for a long time easily attracted bugs. But seeing the final finished photos, I felt all the hard work was completely worth it. This panoramic shot taken with a wide-angle lens perfectly captured me, the glowing umbrella, the water reflections, and the distant shore lights all in one frame. Meanwhile, the other close-up shots clearly show the details of the costume and the texture of the prop itself.

As a creation inspired by a Genshin Impact character, I experimented with many new techniques for this shoot. Handmade DIY props are indeed highly energy-consuming, but once the effect comes out, the satisfaction it brings cannot be replaced by directly buying finished products or using post-processing compositing. I will also organize a detailed breakdown of the light arrangement and a prop-making tutorial later, making it convenient for everyone to discuss the ideas of this kind of night portrait photography. This shoot relied primarily on a high-power continuous light as an auxiliary background light, plus the built-in light source of the jellyfish umbrella as the main light source. During the shooting process, we adjusted about four or five combinations of sitting and standing poses to ensure that both the structure of the umbrella and the details of the skirt hem were covered. The night photography avoided high contrast in the frame, making the skin tone appear relatively soft in the cool light environment. This share will release these photos first; if anyone has questions about a specific lighting setup, feel free to leave a comment for discussion later.