Anime North 2012 - First Major Convention Shoot

When I decided to start convention shooting I decided to aim big and go to Anime North in Toronto. It's quite possibly the largest anime convention in Canada right now and I knew I could get a good start there. Luckily it was the first year for a new section called Photo Alley and I was able to get a free booth area. The unfortunate part was that I couldn't take much equipment and didn't have a background stand (which I still lack). The fortunate part was that the wall that bordered the booth space was a large black curtain, so I just ended up setting up around that. Since I had a limited space I decided to focus on a tight portrait type of photo, rather then the full body style I had been using in the studio. I did however still end up doing a lot of editing on each photo to bring to a level I was happy with. It was great experience though.

In same cases with group photos I had to edit out some background elements and add a floor into the image to replace the mapping sheet I had laid out.

I decided I really liked the idea of group shots after this despite the extra work. I also had slight flaring issues in the images, which taught me that I needed to space my lights out more. All and all it was a great first experience, I just wish I had photographed more people.

I also went to an outdoor group shoot for Final Fantasy, anyone that really knows me knows I'm a huge fan so I was completely geeked out. I decided I'd do a little extra to my photos that I really liked from the shoot and edited the cityscape out of some. I also did a large pan combining two images for the first time.

That's all I really have to talk about on this one, look for the complete image archive next.

-Larry M. Holder