In an effort to find more events to attend for portrait photography I decided to investigate cosplay photography. Other photographers I meet have mentioned cosplay in the past but I was always reluctant, mainly because I know that they tend to take place indoors at venues where the lighting is not attractive for portraits.
I was told about Out Of This World Sheffield and that it might be a good opportunity to take portraits outside. It took place on Sunday 26th October and I decided to attend. It’s a relatively small scale cosplay event and one that I perhaps will not attend in 2026 but nonetheless it was a decent introduction to the genre.
Out Of This World Sheffield – What To Expect
Since Out Of This World Sheffield takes place in late October, the event seems to inspire a number of cosplay costumes and characters that could be associated with Halloween or horror films in general. There were a couple of indoor venues used for the event but it was also possible to get portraits of people outside these venues. As with most cosplay events there were a number science fiction characters in attendence and the Japanese genres of anime and manga. This is all very new to me and I don’t pretend to understand the genres or most of the characters that people are portraying but my knowledge is growing with every event I attend.
If you are local to Sheffield, Out Of This World might be a good event to attend, especially if you have children who are interested. If however you are looking for larger scale events or events where you can meet actors from your favourite shows and get photos or autographs there are other events that would be more suitable, like the Liverpool Comic Con which I attended the following month in November.
Out Of This World Sheffield Gallery
The following is just a sample of the images I took on the day. If you would like to see more you can visit my Facebook album for the event. If cosplay photography is something that interests you then feel free to bookmark my website or Facebook page as I plan to attend more such events in the future. Finally if you are already into cosplay and are looking for high quality images for your social media feel free to contact me as I’ve also started to do dedicated photoshoots with cosplayers on a free time for print basis.
