These photos of Yunli are actually from previous stock that I happened to dig up and organize to share as a social media record. When cosplaying Yunli from Honkai: Star Rail, what initially attracted me was her character setting—a bit childish yet possessive of supreme swordsmanship. Thus, throughout the cosplay planning and shooting process, I hoped to recreate that nimble, playful, and genuine atmospheric feel as much as possible.
Speaking of character accuracy and styling restoration, this Cosplay outfit is deeply focused on accessories and details. Choosing a short hairstyle this time was actually a greater test of wig-trimming skills than long straight hair. To align with the character's hairline flow, after receiving the wig, I specifically trimmed the crown layers to be relatively fluffy to optimize the visual volume at the top of the head. The headpiece utilized a metallic-textured crown adorned with teal accents. As for the costume, it features a white-and-green color-blocked splice design, complemented by dark brown leather bracers and edge-trimming details, creating strong overall layering. During shooting, this Cosplay outfit coordination allowed every movement to fit the character's persona naturally—like a spirited Yunli kitty.
For the outdoor location, I chose streets and alleys in an ancient town with light pedestrian traffic at night. I felt this cosplay really needed a Chinese-style scene imbued with vibrant everyday warmth. Traditional Chinese stone railings and vintage brick buildings, paired with hanging red lanterns, formed a wonderful visual contrast against the cool-toned outfit. The photographer's approach was also to leverage these ambient light sources through a large-aperture lens (selecting an 85mm portrait prime lens) with high ISO capability, softly blurring background brick walls, lanterns, and distant shop signs into tender colored bokeh spots. The shallow depth of field brought by the large aperture effectively peeled away the cluttered background, locking the visual focus entirely onto my facial expressions and foreground props.
The Qingshi bird skewer held in my hand is truly the soul prop of this photo set. Since Yunli herself is particularly fond of eating this, I specifically designed a scene interaction pose leaning over the stone bridge, holding the candied fruit skewer with one hand while gazing at the camera lens. This prop is vibrantly colored, proving eye-catching against the warm Ancient town night view backdrop and preventing the frame from appearing dull due to dark lighting. Shooting an Ancient town night view is indeed much harder than daytime shooting, especially with uneven site lighting requiring reflector boards for fill light on the face, but fortunately, the resulting skin tone turned out quite translucent. There were plenty of mosquitoes on location, and occasional passersby stopped by the stone bridge at night, but everyone was very courteous, allowing the entire shoot to run smoothly.
Regarding post-processing and layout, I didn't apply overly heavy or exaggerated filters. Since we had already captured great warm ambient light in-camera, the editing approach was unifying a warm-toned treatment with a touch of retro flavor. Color-wise, focus was placed on smooth transitions between skin tones, background brick walls, and red lanterns, while ensuring the garment's original teal-green feel wasn't swallowed by ambient colors. For large-scene photos like these, I wouldn't recommend collage stitching or adding large watermark layouts—preserving the complete narrative feel of individual photos is best.
For me, being able to bring a beloved character into real-world living scenarios is an immensely fulfilling accomplishment in itself. Preparing costumes, makeup, and props before each cosplay, then polishing positioning and facial expressions, is always a process of deepening one's understanding of the character. Looking at these photos while sorting through stock files, I feel all the effort and heart invested back then were completely worth it.