Welcome to MockTurtle Creative! Thank you for joining me here in this little corner of nerdy joy and creative community. I'm so glad you're here. #cosplay #melbournecosplay
W-EDIT-NESDAY
When I first saw @mockturtle_creative in her Morgana Pendragon cosplay, I was immediately struck by the vibrant colours of her costume. The colours reminded me very much of the Technicolor movies that I've seen like The Wizard of Oz, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, Suspiria and even animated films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The highly saturated colours were a key characteristic of Technicolor films and I wanted to edit this image in a similar vein.
There are many ways to edit colours in Lightroom. The easiest way is to use the Saturation and Vibrance sliders. Saturation affects the intensity of ALL colours, including skin tones (usually the red, orange and yellow hues). Vibrance works slightly differently, affecting the intensity of colours other than skin tones. In this scene, I boosted saturation by +21, just enough to make the dress colours pop. I also warmed up the temperature of the scene, particularly the background, to evoke a sun-lit scene.
The subject was lit with a single flash from the left side of the frame. You can see from the original image (2nd image) how flat and it looks. This was shot around 2.45pm so the sun was still quite high in the sky. We retreated under the cover of this large tree so the flash was required to illuminate the subject sufficiently. Digital cameras are incredibly forgiving and you can usually underexpose in-camera quite aggressively to preserve the highlights and boost the overall exposure during editing without a significant penalty.
Camera: Fujifilm GFX100S
Lens: GF45mm F2.8 R WR
F4 | 1/125s | ISO 100
Flash: Profoto A2
#cosplay #cosplayer #cosplaygirl #cosplayersofinstagram #cosplayphotography #cosplay #cosplayportrait #cosplayphotoshoot #cosplayphotographer #fujifilm #fujifilm_xseries #greenblooded #bbcmerlin #morgana #morganapendragon
W-EDIT-NESDAY
Recreating night scenes is a lot of fun. This particular image was from a Lord of the Rings shoot in the afternoon. You can see from image #2 what the original conditions were like. Not every daylight scene can be easily converted into a night scene. As always, the direction of light and what parts of the scene are lit is key to making it look convincing.
In this shot, I pushed the colour temperature strongly towards blue with a hint of green tint. The LOTR scene that inspired this edit had a strong green monochromatic colour palette (see image #3) so I used the Colour Grading panel to add green/teal hues to the shadows, midtones and highlights. Colours are usually subdued in night scenes, and skin tones can take on the green/blue hues normally associated with night time. One thing I generally observe in cinematic colour grades is that blacks are still black, so I try not to be overly aggressive with adding hue to the darker tones.
Every movie has their own stylistic way of rendering night scenes. However the most common hues seen would be green/blue. I find older moves tend to be more subtle with their use of colour while more contemporary movies are more heavy-handed (yes, Underworld and Matrix, I'm looking at you). I've included some examples from various movies:
#4 - The Untouchables (1987)
#5 - Suspiria (2018)
#6 - Die Hard (1988)
#7 - Captain Marvel (2019)
#8 - In The Mood For Love (2000)
Cosplayers:
Hobbits: @mockturtle_creative and @cat_callaghan
Aragorn: @robbyretrowave
Camera: Fujifilm GFX100S
Lens: GF45mm F2.8 R WR
F5.6 | 1/320s | ISO 250
#cosplay #cosplayer #cosplayersofinstagram #cosplayphotography #cosplay #cosplayportrait #cosplayphotoshoot #cosplayphotographer #fujifilm #fujifilm_xseries #greenblooded #lotr #lordoftherings #lotrcosplay #lordoftheringscosplay #frodo #samwise #aragorn
Á̸͖̗̫̭̹͝s̷̟̤̰̙̟̅̕͜k̸̨̭̪̜͖̯̮̒̀͛̓̈́́ ̵̳̽̉́̕ĥ̶͍̏̓̚i̸̧̝͚̥̟̹̗͛͗̔̈́̎̑͜͠m̵̡͚̺̣̃̑͒͗̈́̃͆ ̸̜̆̄w̶̗̦̺̝̄͘h̴͓̀̆̚ǻ̷̛͎̑ṯ̸̡͍͍̙̍̓ ̶̗̞͕͚̿h̸̛̲̥͎͉̞͔̬̩̻̄͛͋̅̈́̏̂̕͠ę̵̡͈̱͉̪͎͂̈́͊̿̇̐͠ ̶̧͓̘̺͛̄̐̔̉̂̚d̶̨̤̹̙͕̝̳̫͓̺̂̄̃̈̓͊̕͘ȉ̸͈͈͑͐̆̿͌̾d̴̜̬̉̍̈́͗͑̈́͝ ̴̟͒̏̆͒́̀͛͝t̵͉̝̭̝̤̤̭̰̅͑̃͜ơ̸͇̤̟̋͆̄͑̅̈́̽͜͝͠ ̵̘͛͐̋̇H̶̠͔͇̪̦̗́̾͜e̴̢̜̝͇͚̟̱͌̋̇͗̽̀̔̈ş̴̠̰̱̘͙̜͖̓t̸̢̖̔̀̆̿͑̎̃͗͝͠ë̵͎̤͓́͒͊̿̎͌͐͌̉̅r̴̫̹͐̍͐̐̃͆͂͛ ̴̖̤̹͇̙̫͓͉͉̀̿͊͒̃͋̕͜͠S̵͍̙̫͍͈̘͉̫͛͒̑͛͛h̴̦̃͊͋̈́̓a̴̱͚͍͔͆̓̋̆͌͠w̶̥͎̥̣̎̓̒̐
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🗡️ Hester Shaw - Mortal Engines
📸 @ben.f_photography
📍 Sherbrooke Falls
Another stunning bit of storytelling from @ben.f_photography . I love the softness and almost hope on the second slide. We will keep providing the goods for the Mortal Engines Quartet fandom. Extra cool that the background colours mirror the original artwork of the novel! Definitely feeling the pull of another adventure shoot.
#mortalengines #hestershaw #scifi
The Fates:
Maiden: @bambi.eve
Mother: @frankie.cosplay
Crone: @mockturtle_creative
This was an opportunistic shot I took during the Wanderlust 2025 PM session of this amazing trio as the Fates. They coordinated their costumes so well and it was such a delightful surprise and highlight to see them at Wanderlust that I could not stop smiling at them!
The PM session ran from 2pm - 6pm on June 28, 2025 - a winter evening in Melbourne, which meant that we lost all natural light as the evening approached. Fortunately I did bring along an Aputure LS300d II - a powerful daylight-balanced LED light that I pointed at the ceiling to fill the entire room with light. Bounced light is a lot softer than shining it directly on them and it's more flattering on skin. I didn't have to do too much to the original image apart from warm it up slightly to emphasise the lovely brown-gold tones of their cosplay.
One thing I did want to do was to introduce some playfulness into the shot (the Fates are fickle aren't yet?) so I asked them to stack themselves in a (tasteful) heap. It reminds me of the stacked rock piles you sometimes see at certain nature sites, with a long base tapering up towards a point, like a mountain.
Camera: Fujifilm GFX100S
Lens: GF45mm F2.8 R WR
F3.6 | 1/125s | ISO 3200
Lighting: Aputure LS300d II, bounced off the ceiling
#cosplay #cosplayer #cosplaygirl #cosplayersofinstagram #cosplayphotography #cosplay #cosplayportrait #cosplayphotoshoot #cosplayphotographer #fujifilm #fujifilm_xseries #greenblooded #thefates #goddess #greekmythology #goddesscosplay
ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ. ᴘᴇʀꜱᴏɴᴀʟ.
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Not gonna lie, this shot has helped ye olde ego. I love Helga so much and hope to play/voice a character like her some day. Seeing myself in her heeled boots is pretty special.
⚙️ Helga Sinclair - Atlantis: The Lost Empire
📸 @ben.f_photography
📍 @nationalsteamcentre
#helgasinclair #atlantisthelostempire #disneycosplay
