Alien Bees 800 on 1/2 power to camera right and left, using the standard 7-inch reflector. Vagabond 300 provided the juice.
Two LumoPro 160's, 1/2 power ish, with 1/2 CTO gels behind the group for separation/rim.
Kryptonite glow added in post.
This is the back porch area of the downtown Hilton. There are several sets of stairs, which might have made for a better setting for this photo - except that there were no lights on and it was night. We shot here because there was a enough light from the streetlight peeking over the walls to allow the cosplayers to navigate around safely and a way to put people on multiple levels.
That light wasn't really enough for camera/lens combination focus well, so I had get my snake light out to spotlight the center characters in the formation. Because I was running off battery power, I couldn't afford to run the AB' modeling lights for the shoot.
I had umbrella's and such for the ABs, which would have allowed me to move the lights in closer and get a softer light quality. Unfortunately, it was a breezy night, and I was short on assistants and sandbags. To make up for it, the lights are pretty far back, and feathered across - camera left light aired at right side of formation, camera right at right side of formation.
I had one more speedlight with me, and I should have set it up to fill in the middle of the formation. It wasn't absolutely necessary here, but in some of the bigger groups shots, I really could have used some extra light in the middle because of the shadows thrown by the folks at the forward outer edges of the group.
Also, I learned a lesson about positioning people with mirrors on their chest. If you look at Steel - lower right, shiny silver guy with a big hammer, you see that it's hard to make out the 'S' on his chest. That's because it's practically a mirror, and it's reflecting the blond curls of the woman next to him. I should have faced him more outwards, to remove that reflection.
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