It's happened to all of us - you get home, load up your con photos, and your reaction is "meh." Fear not! The Otaku no Podcast crew will show you the tips and tricks you need to get those awesome Cosplay.com like shots. This was the workshop I gave at Anime Expo 2010. Be sure and check the Otaku no Podcast website for full show notes, including links to the products, books, etc. mentioned. http://otakunopodcast.com/​photo/​

1. Convention Photography
How To Get The Shot (and make it look easy!)
Presented by the Otaku no Podcast Crew
Otaku no Podcast http://otakunopodcast.com/

2. WRITE THIS
DOWN!!
http://otakunopodcast.com/photo/

3. Types of Digital Cameras

5. The 3 Convention
Photography Situations
❖ Outdoor cosplay gathering
❖ Indoors
❖ Dealers hall
❖ Panels
❖ Hall cosplay
❖ Theater - Masquerade

6. Outdoor Photography
❖ Lots of light; casts harsh shadows
❖ Solution: Find a shady spot
❖ Under a tree, by a wall in the shade, etc.
❖ Cloudy/overcast is actually better
❖ Minimize the sky
❖ Use a reflector
❖ The back of a (white) cardboard sign works well
❖ Use fill flash

8. Indoors
❖ Bad and varied lighting
❖ Often not the best position
❖ Keep the camera steady
❖ Minimize the background
❖ Minimize your expectations
❖ Don’t be “that guy/gal”
❖ Flash may not work (and may be forbidden)

9. Making Your Subject
Stand Out
❖ Avoid “busy” backgrounds
❖ Use a backdrop
❖ Blur the background

10. Blurring the Background
with a (D)SLR
❖ Relatively easy
❖ Use widest aperture
❖ Stand as close as you can
❖ Make sure background elements are as far away as possible

11. Blurring the Background
with a Point and Shoot
❖ Harder, but not impossible
❖ Especially hard to do in crowds
❖ Helps to have a large zoom range
❖ Stand back as far as you can
❖ Zoom all the way in

13. When You’ve Gotta
Flash...

14. Get the Flash Off the
Camera

15. Soften the Light

16. Use a Ring Flash

17. Look for photo shoot areas

19. Theater
❖ Really bad lighting
❖ Bright center spot, dark surroundings
❖ (Usually) poor positioning
❖ Flash is absolutely useless (and often forbidden)
❖ Very hard to do with a point and shoot
❖ Play with exposure and ISO

20. Keep It Steady
❖ Use your surroundings
❖ Posts, railings, seats, people...
❖ “The Death Grip”
❖ Tripods, monopods, etc.
❖ Tripod alternatives

21. The Death Grip

22. DIY Tripod Substitutes

23. Less ghetto tripod
alternatives

24. LET’S GET GEEKY!!

26. The basics of exposure
❖ Shutter speed - Controls motion
❖ Aperture - How much is in focus
❖ ISO - Sensitivity of “film”

27. Shutter Speed
❖ Expressed as fractions of a second
❖ 1/60, 1/250, etc.
❖ Confusingly shown as a non-fraction on most cameras
❖ 60 = 1/60, 250 = 1/250, etc.
❖ Larger is shorter
❖ 1 second or greater, number followed by a mark

28. Shutter Speed
❖ Controls motion
❖ Slow shutter speed (1/60 or longer) blurs motion
❖ Fast shutter speeds (1/250 or shorter) freezes motion
❖ The slower the shutter, the more chance for camera shake
❖ Rule of thumb for eliminating camera shake:
❖ 1/(focal length) (e.g. for 50mm lens, 1/50 or shorter)

29. Aperture
❖ The “hole” that lets light into the camera
❖ Expressed as “ƒ number” (ƒ stop)
❖ Ratio of diameter to focal length
❖ ƒ/2, ƒ/1.8, etc.
❖ Smaller is bigger

30. Aperture
❖ Controls depth of field
❖ How much is blurred vs. sharply in focus
❖ Scary math ahead!
❖ Use a depth of field calculator
❖ Experiment
❖ In general ƒ/8 and above renders most things in focus

31. ISO
❖ How “sensitive” the “film” is
❖ Larger ISO number means more sensitivity
❖ Trade off is digital noise
❖ Most DSLRs can go to at least 800
❖ Latest ones up to 3200 ot 6400
❖ Digital noise can be corrected in software so it’s not a deal
breaker (but requires extra work)

33. GEAR

34. Lenses

35. The Photojournalists’ Special

36. Straps

37. Bags/Cases

38. Memory Cards

39. Photo Storage Tanks

40. The Future

42. Renting Your Gear
❖ Good for those special occasions
❖ Also good to “try before you buy”
❖ Not as expensive as it sounds

43. Rent!
Use discount code LETUS5
for 5% off!
Valid through 7/31/2010

45. Cell phone cameras
The camera you always have with you...

46. ❖ Steady shot apps
❖ Darkroom, Darkroom Pro - iPhone
❖ Perfect Camera, SmartCam - Android
❖ Image editors
❖ Photoshop Mobile - both platforms
❖ PhotoGene, PhotoForge - iPhone
❖ Snap FX, PicSay (Pro), Photo Enhance (Pro)- Android

48. Photography Etiquette
❖ At a convention, anything goes
❖ “Expectation of privacy”
❖ If you can see it, you can photograph it
❖ For personal use only - everything changes if you try and
make money with your images
❖ Be polite - ask
❖ Or not...

49. Good ideas in general
❖ RTFM
❖ Practice
❖ Don’t forget your gear
❖ Observe no-photo areas (or be ready to face the
consequences if you intentionally violate them)
❖ When in doubt, ask!

50. Good ideas in general
❖ Don’t be afraid to crop
❖ Take many pictures
❖ “The machine pistol methodology”
❖ Even many cheaper point and shoots have burst mode
❖ Location, location, location...

52. In Summary
❖ Point and shoots work well...
❖ When you’re free to walk up close to your subject
❖ Lighting is good, and you can manage shadows
❖ DSLRs work well...
❖ When lighting is low/poor
❖ The more extreme condition, the better

54. Resources

58. Doll/Model Photography

59. Bring Your Own Lighting

60. Any Questions?

61. Thanks for coming!