[Ibuki Cosplay] Azur Lane New Year Blessing: Gold Sycee and Tanghulu Under Warm Light

This Chinese New Year themed Azur Lane cosplay final cuts brought to everyone today perfectly echoes the holiday atmosphere, hoping to let everyone feel the rich flavor of the New Year through this set of photos.

Actually, every time I shoot characters from Azur Lane, I always think about how to merge the character's inherent temperament with a specific shoot theme. Ibuki originally carries a hint of mythological and shrine maiden-like mysterious aura, but under this Chinese New Year theme interpretation, I opted for a direction leaning toward festivity and daily interactive feel. For this shoot, I specially custom-ordered this modified-style costume in advance. The wig is bright blue long straight hair, with two fluffy bun hairstyles intentionally styled at the top of the head, paired with that pair of curved black small horns, making it highly eye-catching visually. The layers of this outfit are very rich; the outer layer utilizes a white-and-purple color-blocked thin tulle fabric, light and flowing, allowing light to filter through beautifully to present a dreamlike texture. The inner wear is a black tight bodice style, embedded with exquisite golden trim along the edges, and the red rope knot at the chest not only serves as a decoration but also raises the center of gravity of the entire upper body. It perfectly captures the essence of Ibuki cosplay.

Since it's a Chinese New Year atmosphere, the makeup and styling underwent a vast degree of enhancement as well. I specially selected an eyeshadow leaning toward red-brown and upturned eyeliner, paired with red pupils, which looks both powerful yet not overly sharp before the lens. Grooming this hairstyle took quite a lot of effort; a double bun style plus long straight hair easily becomes messy if the wind is strong or if there is too much walking around, so during shooting intervals, an assistant was constantly helping me manage the layers of the buns on top and the arc line of the bangs. To build an authentic warm light atmosphere on the day of the shoot, after discussing with the photographer, we used multiple warm-colored spotlights and added some smoke special effects in the air, thereby capturing those floating light dust particles in the frame—this is the Tyndall effect frequently used in photography, which can instantly give the entire photo a sense of story and a warm aura. This showcases the depth of Cosplay photography.

In terms of prop selection, the arrangement this time was highly rich. Placed on the desk table was a whole set of "Bringing Wealth" red silk desk mats, red envelopes written with auspicious words, glittering large gold sycees, and bright red tanghulu. As everyone can see, when I was holding that huge gold sycee, to strike a beautiful pose, I attempted arm angles and body tilts multiple times, aiming to make the sycee prominent in the frame without letting it completely block the clothing details on my chest. Additionally, there was a string of vibrant tanghulu; the posture of holding a sycee in one hand and tanghulu in the other is also a highly playful interaction. For ancient style or national style props, I usually spend time in advance researching their texture. For a reflective material like a sycee, its highlight positioning under the light directly determines the frame layers, so constantly adjusting the orientation of the sycee was also an important part of our shoot.

For the scene arrangement, we selected intricate red fabric drapes and cushions with auspicious patterns, paired with an antique Chinese paper lamp casting a warm light to one side, and a ceramic vase holding red fruits on the other side, maximizing the color saturation of the entire frame. The complementary clash of red and blue allowed my blue-haired character to stand out exceptionally well in the warm-toned environment, avoiding the feeling of being swallowed by the background. During the shooting process, I also attempted sitting with single-leg extension and kneeling postures beside the desk table. The spreading angle of the skirt hem when sitting down in this kind of costume is very precise, requiring constant arrangement of the gauze skirt's wrinkles to ensure it looks long-legged in the frame without making the skirt corner look bloated.

As a coser, I deeply know that a great outtake is not as simple as just putting on clothes and donning a wig. When searching for the character's feel, I specially went to watch this character's movements and voice lines in the game to fathom her personality. Then, under this New Year celebration theme, I put that touch of playfulness and laziness into the lens. For instance, the moment of holding the gold sycee with both hands and tossing it upward, or the moment of half-leaning over the desk table and glancing back, were all efforts to build a natural and lifestyle-like atmosphere rather than deliberate posing.

Overall, this Azur Lane cosplay final cut of Ibuki both preserves her original mythological colors and cool aura, and presents a festive style more suitable for sharing during the New Year period through the rearranging of scenes and props. I hope you in front of the screen can enjoy this sharing. The integration of light, shadow, and details in this piece of work is also the result of multiple alignments with the photography team. This serves as a great New Year greeting illustration for everyone.