Cosplay in Review: Vulcan Starfleet Science Officer

The Costume
I used 2 varieties of spandex for this dress. Predominately the dress is made of 4-way stretch vinyl in Turquoise with a collar of 4-way stretch Metallic Black, both from spandexworld.com. The pattern was slightly modified from a simple long sleeve shirt and much of the measuring was pure guesswork (because that's how I roll). I used gold rick rack for the sleeve details and the badge was simply printed out on paper and taped on for the shoot as there wasn't quite enough time to order a real one.



The Shot
The photo was shot around midday in the foothills of the Sandia's. We used 2 strobes; one bare with a green gel for accent and one with a diffuser for fill light. This shot was challenging for a few different reasons. First of all the temperature was 100+ degrees and that sort of heat paired with vinyl is, quite possibly, one of the most excruciating combinations in existence. Secondly were the gnats which were prevalent enough that they had to be removed from both the photo in photoshop and my contact lenses by the end of the shoot.  The last challenge was timing where we had to wait for shooting opportunities around joggers, hikers, and dog walkers who where consistently wandering in the photos background.

The un-touched barren wasteland

The Edit
Obviously the original color profile of this shot was horribly drab and de-hydrated with very little sky color to speak of so most of the editing consisted of simple tonal adjustments. I applied green overlays on the ground, deep blue on the mountains and teal to the sky. On top of the sky was also a simple star overlay and gradient which I added to create the "other-worldly" feel of the final shot.

The fruits of our labor

Photo and lighting were done by the talented Wolfnet Archives