Last Updated on 05/20/2019 by Mark Beckenbach
This Mortal Kombat cosplay project gives us a peek into the process involved in transforming photography into digital art specific to the subculture.
Cosplay photography remains one of the most popular and vibrant photography sub-genres, and cosplay is a visual art in its own right. Most of the impressive cosplay imagery we see begins with costumes and props made as detailed and accurate as possible, and is then followed up with great portrait photography. But when you really need to push the art further and make it more striking, you can draw inspiration from the retouching process of Chilean art director Marce Moya Ochoa and this Mortal Kombat project.
Simply titled Mortal Kosplay, the project was a collaboration between Santiago-based Ochoa and the talented cosplayers from Team Mortal Kombat Outstanding for their respective portfolios. “The portraits were done in-house and the post production is a mix between showing the garments, which are VERY well done, portraying the cosplayers IN CHARACTER as best as possible, and contribute to my retouching and post-production practice and portfolio,” he shared in the project description.
The project is a perfect example of how great portrait photography is often the foundation of accurate and impressive cosplay photography — with or without special effects care of post-processing. This is why it’s worth seeing the process of creative retouchers and digital artists. The “base” photos already look good on their own, and that’s a big chunk of why the final artworks are as stunning as they come. In fact, how the photo shoot for these base photos went down is noteworthy in itself. Working in the studio opens up various creative possibilities for the final images, as we can see in the use of lighting and poses of the Mortal Kombat cosplayers. If you’re interested in the entire retouching work for Mortal Kosplay, Ochoa also included some peeks of the build-up process:
Check out Marce Moya Ochoa’s website and Behance portfolio if you want to see more of his retouching work.
All photos by Marce Moya Ochoa. Used with Creative Commons permission.