Hey everyone and welcome to this week’s What the Bleep Am I Doing?! Rebel’s Guide To This week I’m going to be continuing the Social Media Mastering series! This time I’m going to be talking about how to manage your content! It may be a smaller article, but still helpful! So let’s get started, shall we?
Managing your content
This one is probably the easiest out of everything. Yet it can also be the most taxing. Depending on what you are using the social media platform for ie. Cosplay, Writing, Photography, etc. is what you will be posting. Some niches are easier than others. But there’s a tip that I strongly recommend heeding. And that’s having a backlog of your posts. What I mean by this is when you get new content make sure to save it because when weeks past or months past and you don’t have something to post right at that moment for whatever reason, you’ll have that backlog to fish from. It’s a lifesaver trust me.
Another thing that will help you is, if at all possible, have a day during the week where you make a lot of content. This is extremely helpful if you can’t always make content every day. Like if you’re a cosplayer and perhaps a not yet well known one, you won’t be able to cosplay every day. So this tip works really well. But if you’re a writer or photographer it’s much easier to roll out those awesome posts each day without finding yourself short of content.
How was that my friend? I’d love to hear your guy’s thoughts! Or maybe you want to exchange some different insights I’d love to hear those too!
Well, that’s all for now…
Rebel Fae out!
Wanna support Rebel Fae and get exclusive access to things such as work in progress posts and stories I don’t post here or anywhere else? Hop over to my Ko-fi page and donate. I’m eternally grateful for all that y’all do for me, you guys give me the strength to keep going so thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Hey everyone and welcome to this week’s What the Bleep Am I doing?! A Rebel’s Guide To… This week I’ll be talking about mastering Social Media. Well, at least trying to. No one can truly tame the internet’s unruly beast. But I do have a couple of tips to get you guys started or further in your influencer journey. Because whether you’re a writer, blogger, or even a cosplayer you’re going to have to come up against this fickle thing. But, it’s a lot of information so this will be broken up into a What the Bleep AmI Doing series! With each section as its own little article! So let’s get started, shall we?
Trying to get seen
This is probably the first step in your journey. Plus, it may be—no, it will be the trickiest. Now, it’s not impossible but it will take some time so get ready to become a very patient person. What I can tell you is, simply have patience. Because unfortunately, it won’t happen overnight unless you are extremely lucky.
But there are a few things that make being seen a little bit easier. For example, use the crap out of hashtags. Whatever it is that you are posting, put it at the bottom of your post—this is mainly for Twitter and Instagram by the way, a lot of hashtags that pertain to what you are posting. For example, say you are posting a cosplay of the character Shinsou Hitoshi from My Hero Academia. Some really good hashtags to use for that would be things like this: #Shinsou, #ShinsouHitoshicosplay, #Myheroacademia, #Cosplayer of Instagram. Just to name a few. You can get quite creative and put the different aspects of your post in the hashtags and you could catch a good number of views that way.
I say use hashtags because let’s face it that’s how most of us look for new content on social media through these hashtags. So, using this logic, the more prominent hashtags used, the bigger the chance your post will have of being seen. Simple.
Another thing that helps, well more like two things—but these two basically go hand in hand with each other. Tagging and getting to know other creators in your niche. This I’d like to think is pretty self-explanatory. Get to know the people that do similar things you do, make friends with them, and tag them occasionally in your posts. It’s like a little form of “Hey! Look at this! I think you may like it.” Plus, a little self-promotion never hurt.
Well, that’s all for this first installment of Social Media series. I hope this was some kind of help to all of you. Whether you’re a vet or a newbie with Social Media. And if you have any questions what so ever, feel free to ask!
Hey guys and welcome to this week’s What the Bleep am I Doing?! This time I’m going to be helping y’all out with managing all of those awesome projects we end up doing as creators. We all know time management and finding out how manage your entire project in general can be stressful and sometimes overwhelming. So, I created this week’s WTB with the intent to help anyone who is struggling with such matters. So, let’s get to it shall we?
Brainstorm! The first part to creating every amazing project is brainstorming ideas of what you want to create.
Figure out how big your project is going to be.
Chunk it down into layers—figure out your projects’ steps.
From the patterning to gathering the materials and the building each one is going to take a different variable amount of time so schedule each one out. From five days or a whole week.
Once you figure approximately how much time each step is going to take, set a due date for your project to be done. Trust me, this is important. You’ll find yourself putting it off so much that you won’t get it done if you don’t set a date.
Make absolutely sure you have enough materials. You don’t wanna run out halfway through.
Take pictures of each step, not only will it keep you motivated, but it will be awesome to show of your progress when you’re all done!
Do the small parts first. Not only will this make it easier, but it will give you less to stress about.
This is kind of a no duh, but make sure to keep your work area clean and decluttered and far away from distractions. As I always like to say, a cluttered and distracted mind is an unproductive one.
Well, that’s all for this week’s What the Bleep. I hope I provided some helpful information to y’all! If you have any questions feel free to ask, I’m always more than happy to help!
Hey everyone! Welcome to another What the Bleep am I Doing?! This time I’m going to be following up on last Wednesday’s subject of Cosplay Posing. But, instead of talking about posing, I will be talking about the art of photography for cosplay itself. Because not only is it important to know what to do in front of the camera but behind it as well! Plus, it can be pretty fun to be able to know how to do both. So let’s get started, shall we?
What is cosplay Photography and how is different than regular photography?
There’s quite the difference between nature photography, portraiture, and our awesome cosplay photography. Yes, the main difference is the subject of your photo but there’s so much more to it. The lens you choose, the type of editing you have to approach the pictures with, just everything. You also need a bigger and more in-depth conversation with your subject to get a variety of poses and tell an interesting story.
With portraitures and nature, heck even food or just photography for other artistic outlets you don’t necessarily need your subject to pose a certain way or convey a type of “presence”. With that photography, you just need good shots, lighting, and willing subjects. It’s a much more difficult process with Cosplayers seeing that you won’t always have bookings to photograph them. You will have opportunities at different events and conventions to take photos. Just make sure you ask first. But this can also be a big pressure for cosplay photographers seeing that it can be at times mentally taxing and you can constantly be on yourself about whether or not the pictures you took are good.
Phone vs. DSLR
Ah yes, the age-old debate on what takes better photos. In all honesty, when you’re trying to get really professional photos or really good shots in general go with the DSLR, my friend. It may take you a while to save up for a really good one, considering the lowest you’ll find one is at least $400 if you’re lucky. But saving up for a DSLR even a cheaper level one will help you out in the long run.
Now, using your phone camera will serve you well at times too. I, myself am a big phone camera user. Especially when it comes to simple work in progress pictures or at-home shoots when you don’t have someone to help take your photo—which I’ve done multiple times and the pictures have come out quite nicely if I do say so myself.
All in all, it comes down to the quality of the photos and what exactly you intend to do with them. If they are just going to be work-in-progress photos, sure a DSLR will take really good pictures at a good pixel rate and you won’t have to do much editing—I definitely recommend this for when you are shooting at a convention or at cosplay shoot. But, when it comes to those work-in-progress pictures or just simple shoots at home like I mentioned above, your phone camera will do just fine. Especially since nowadays there are phone picture editing apps that you can edit those phone pictures so you don’t have to worry about pixel loss when you upload it to photoshop to edit.
Editing—Your new best friend
This is something that you will either love or hate when it comes to any type of photography. It can either be one of the most fun things to do after a shoot, or one of the most tedious. And whichever program you choose to use—be it a phone editing app or the all-powerful Photoshop, you’re going to be doing relatively the same thing: Exposure fixing, changing the lighting ever so slightly, fixing the color levels if need be, and fiddling with the sharpening and blurring tools. The main difference though, when dealing with cosplay photography you will be adding all kinds of effects to the photo. Whether it be changing the color of your subject’s eyes, putting fire or the look of water bending in the background, or heck even adding a few cool effects to your work in progress pictures while you’re at it as well. (I mean, if you have the ability, why not you know?)
Location Location Location
This is probably my favorite subject when it comes to cosplay photography. Finding the right location to shoot your subject or even have yourself shot in means so much. I talked a bit about this in my Posing for Cosplay article and how it can change a cosplayer’s picture completely. Especially if you can use objects or anything of any kind in your location.
The reason why I say choosing the location is important—yes even when it comes to finding the right places to take pictures in a convention, is because and I can’t stress this enough, it really helps tell the story of your subject or even you, yourself if you are both the photographer and the subject.
For example, if you are say, cosplaying as Hikaru Hitachiin from Ouran Highschool Host Club you will want to take your pictures somewhere where it has a lot of light, looks at least somewhat fancy, or even a ballroom or school. Now, you don’t have to find these exact spots to take your pictures because sometimes these things aren’t exactly available. That’s where being crafty with your locations and editing comes in.
For example, if you do it yourself, placing yourself by a door and maybe placing some cutesy and light objects around will make it feel like you are shooting in a magnificent school. Or if you are doing a shoot you can perhaps track down a really pretty public park seeing that there were a few park scenes here and there. Even better if the park has fields of flowers because that will really make the character come to life in the photo. Plus, who doesn’t love taking pictures with flowers? Well, unless you’re allergic that is.
Tips and tricks
Now that I’ve gone through the different terminology and ways of cosplay photography, I’m gonna give you guys some tips to making your photos amazing. Whether you’re behind the camera or in front of it.
Using a DSLR—Whether you’re a beginner or a pro
Working with a DSLR can be a bit intimidating. It has a lot of different buttons and ways of taking pictures. So, anyone who is new to it can and will feel really overwhelmed. Luckily yours truly has taken her fair share of classes on this wonderful complex camera so I can help with at least some confusion.
First off, read the manual. That sucker will teach you all the basics you need to know since it was written for that camera. It will make trying to hunt down information on what button does a whole lot easier for you.
Next experiment with all of the features you can by taking a whole slew of pictures. Whether it’s of cosplay or other subjects. Taking a mass amount of pictures using all the different features that your camera contains will give you a prime experience with your camera so you can become familiar with it really fast. And it’ll help you take those awesome cosplay pictures faster and even better.
Using your phone
Now, when you use your phone, the pixels are no doubt going to go down and also be stretched out slightly if you try to edit them on photoshop.But, using your phone does have a lot of its upsides for example taking quick pictures. Like I said constantly above it’s amazing for work in progress pictures seeing that not always will you be able to take out your camera and have it next to you while working on your projects. Plus with your phone, you can use it to take those in-home shoots when you have to be your own photographer. Granted you can use a camera for both options but the cell phone is always one of my favorite go-to’s when one, you don’t currently have enough money to get a DSLR, and two you’re just not in the mood to get your camera and go through the whole process of putting it on it stands on the tripod, attaching it so it doesn’t fall off, the whole shablang.
Something I’ve come to learn through using the phone camera though is to try to use your hand motion sensor or a Bluetooth button to take the shot so selfies are easy and you don’t have to continually go back and forth with clicking the phone button and waiting for the timer to go off. Because believe me, it makes life a lot easier.
Also, work with a ring light when using your phone camera. It will improve the light situation greatly. I’m a big proponent of using a ring light.
Create with what ya got
When you don’t have much, whether you’re just starting out or you just don’t have much to work with, you have a lot to use. That was definitely the case for me when I first started out. I didn’t have any of the tech-y green screens, really cool ring lights, etc., etc. So, therefore, DIY was my best friend. And I can definitely recommend making things you need when you can’t get the higher-level stuff. For example, I’ve made a ring light out of electrical tubbing and some cheap LEDs. I’ve created different backgrounds from all of the various blankets and leftover fabric. It’s amazing what you can do just by creating what you need. Even when you can afford to get the high-tech stuff, try making what you need first to see if you can save an extra buck or two.
Well, that’s it for this week’s What the Bleep am I Doing?! I hope you guys enjoyed this article and found it helpful whether you are a newbie at cosplay photography or a vet. And of course, if you have any questions feel free to ask ‘em! I love chatting and helping out any way I can.
And lastly, if you wanna support The Rebel Fae and my writing and cosplay ventures feel free to drop a Ko-fi my way! This time’s goal is getting my Harley Quinn cosplay up and running once more. It means a lot to me to re-try this cosplay after having some emotional struggles with it a while back. So any help is amazing! Just click here!
The Rebel Fae 