Project Cosplay

Tip #006 Posing in Cosplay

So you’ve spent all night working till the wee hours of the morning to finish up this awesome costume for the next big event. After the convention is over, you see pictures of yourself pop up on the internet and then realize, “Oh man, if only I turned my gun sideways, we could’ve gotten a good shot of it!” Yes, this has happened to me before so here are some tips for posing in cosplay.

1) Be aware of your poses. One of the worse things that could happen is you realize later after the convention that you held your staff wrong so it completely covered your face in all your photos *gasp*. So please, read up on this awesome tutorial by CHERAZOR: http://cherazor.deviantart.com/art/Guide-Posing-in-Cosplay-172433587

2) Find pictures of your character. This one might seem obvious but just looking at pictures of your character in the series will give you ideas on how to pose. Digital wallpapers of your characters are some of the best reference shots for poses.

3) Create predetermined poses with your friends. I know this sounds weird but my friends and I try to do this whenever we can. After dressing up in our cosplay outfits at the hotel room, we stand in front of the full body mirror and plan out 3 - 5 poses we should do for our group cosplays. This way we can see what everyone is doing and what angles we should be standing. We also give names to our poses like “V-Line” so we all know what to do. It helps a lot because when you are at the convention center, you get only a few seconds to pose yourselves before the photographer snaps away. Here are some ideas for group poses that work for a group of 2 to 5 people.

• The V-Line (you can also invert this so the person in the front is in the far back)
  
  
  
• The half V (you stand in a “V” but only one side is filled out. Make sure your photographer snaps from the front of the line and not the side. And does the picture look familiar? LOL. This one is of us for those who are unaware. I’m Lina and Elfgrove is Zel.)
  
  
• Kneeling (basically, you want 1to 2 people kneeling in front and the rest stand behind them)
  
  
  
• Mirror (basically, you invert what the other person does. This isn’t an “exact” mirror since their hand signs are different but the body positioning are basically mirrors)

If you have any other tips for poses, we would love to hear them!