[Vampire Princess cosplay] Onmyoji Dark Gothic style, the enchanting shadow of the night under the crimson cross

The scene setup for this photoshoot took a full two days. To present that dark and Gothic-infused atmosphere of the enchanting bat shadow of the night, just building that huge black coffin and the giant red cross behind it took a lot of effort. Due to limited venue space, to make the smoke achieve the ideal effect, we had to repeatedly adjust the direction of the blower and the smoke output of the fog machine.

The details regarding the clothing are extremely complex. This outfit combining Japanese style and dark elements features an outer layer of black lace and an inner layer of fabric with golden totems and prints. When wearing it, the layers of the waist and skirt hem needed to be arranged layer by layer, and the black straps and thigh rings on the legs had to be adjusted to ensure a crisp yet soft feeling in front of the lens. In terms of makeup, I deliberately chose purple contact lenses to echo the Vampire Princess's eye color, matched with pointed elf ear props and a slightly glamorous and cold eye makeup, hoping to better approach the character's dangerous yet lonely temperament.

What tests a person the most during shooting is actually the control of expressions and postures. The frame looks like leaning lazily against the coffin, but in reality, core strength needs to be kept tight all the time to maintain this state of being ready to rise from the darkness at any moment. The pumpkin lanterns, vintage silver candleholders, scattered bone props, and red light gauze in the background were all meant to enrich the layering of the frame. To achieve this light-and-shadow texture, we set up a warm orange main light source in the dark environment, and the rim light just happened to outline the edges of the golden clothes while making the smoke present a flowing orange-red color.

During the shooting process, besides enduring the heavy smoke smell, one had to constantly pay attention not to let hair and accessories get tangled by iron chains and props. The strong contrast of red and black is very light-hungry; a slight overexposure would lose details, so every time before pressing the shutter, the highlight parts were checked. Being able to convey this character's charm and sense of danger through the images makes all the prior hard work totally worth it.

This set of works is a visual reshaping of the character by me; I hope everyone can feel the effort I put into the props, clothing, and light and shadow.