MPB Meets: Cosplay Portrait Photographer Liza Roberts

Interested in cosplay photography or historical-style portraits? Fantasy photographer Liza Roberts is a specialist in recreating photography inspired by period dramas depicting life in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. So, what factors do you need to consider if you want to create your own period drama photography? Liza Roberts visited Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, UK, with a group of models wearing historical costumes. In this article, Liza shares her advice for creating historical cosplay photography. Over to you, Liza.

How does dressing up in fantasy or historical clothing, running around to magical locations, and hanging out with your best friends sound? Well, that’s my job! My name is Liza Roberts. I’m one of the incredibly fortunate folks who get to do what I love for a career and that, for me, is fantasy and cosplay photography and content creation.

If you are a fan of The Lord of the Rings, Labyrinth, Game of Thrones, Arthurian legends and the like, you know what I’m talking about. Think dragons, fae and magical swords. I also draw from periods in history like the Renaissance, Regency and the Georgian era. On top of working with clients who’d like to have their portraits taken by me, my resume includes work with Adobe, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and the beloved astrology site SanctuaryWrld.

Recently, I got to travel to England to work with my friend Samantha and several friends tagged along with me. Samantha was kind enough to take us to Chatsworth House, a grand home and gardens in Derbyshire, England built in the 17th century. 

Chatsworth is perhaps most well known as Pemberley, the home of Mr. Darcy in the 2005 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. What better opportunity for my friends and I to dress up and let our imaginations take us back to the Regency period of the early 19th century? Here is how I planned my creative shoot at Chatsworth House from conceptualization to end product. 

I began with an idea board. As a visual person, using tools like Pinterest is crucial to my creative process. I gathered images that evoke the English countryside, costume illustrations from the Regency era, stills from the Pride & Prejudice movies and television series: any inspiration that makes me stop and say, “That’s the aesthetic I’m aiming for.” Once I’ve compiled a visual reference for the shoot, I typically move on to find a location—but that had thankfully been done for me with Chatsworth House.

When I found out Chatsworth House was a destination for our shoot, I immediately thought about costumes. While the Regency era is easy to fake with its high “empire” waist, I knew I wanted to have a completely accurate reproduction made. My friend Emma made me an ensemble that includes a white cotton day dress and an olive green silk jacket. 

My friends who modeled for me also either bought pieces from historic costumers or made their own pieces. The costumes truly add to the overall composition and feel of the shoot. I am so fortunate to work with friends and models who put great care and effort into their looks, as it helps transport the viewer to another time. You can easily find your own costumes for this or any other time period by searching sites like Etsy, where makers sell handmade items. It’s a worthwhile investment to add to your shoot.

Chatsworth was wildly busy the day of the shoot, as I’m sure it always is. I faced the challenge of taking my shots around dozens of people all looking at us in our clothing that was not out of place, but out of time. We decided to shoot in two places—the front of the grand house and in the grotto gardens. Thankfully, the lawn in front of the house was roped off to all visitors, making for a nice clean backdrop for my friends and me to model. 

I used my Canon EOS R6 and 50mm f/1.8 STM lens to capture the perfect shots. To keep things light and easy, I did not take my tripod or any lights — just the Canon EOS R6 (read the Canon EOS R6 review) and the lens. In locations like this, tripods and lights are often not allowed, and it’s best to avoid using them if you can. If you cannot, always write to the property management to get permission and avoid an embarrassing end to your shoot. 

I always try to avoid using lighting because I feel natural light makes the fantasy or historic elements more realistic—I don’t think folks carried LED panels around in the 1500s (wink). I also prefer more diffused light to give my portraits a more dreamlike feel. The light we had that day at Chatsworth felt too harsh to convey the soft romantic feel I wanted for those shots. As a photographer, it is my job to think about every element like this to completely and accurately tell the story.

If you’re not working with experienced models or folks who have been in front of a camera before, there are easy ways to make your subjects look like they’re straight out of the time period you’re trying to imitate. Study artworks from that period. How are the subjects in paintings holding their hand? Is their posture casual or structured and upright? Are they smiling? 

If you’re like me, you like to give your models something to do with their hands. A small antique book, a pair of gloves or a fan gives them just that, and these are small, easy-to-carry items. Don’t ignore the landscapes or backgrounds of paintings, either. Think of your portrait shots as a painting and try not to focus on just the subject, but the whole scene. The Chatsworth House was just as important to my shots as my friends in the foreground, as each helped tell the story I wanted to tell.

Photoshoots based around destinations like this are a great investment because they transport your audience without lots of post work. I always aim to keep my work rooted in a realistic setting—one that seems attainable. It helps to draw my viewers into the world I envisioned at the beginning of the whole process. 

I am incredibly happy with the shots we got. I had to do some light editing to lower the brightness of the harsh sun that day. I also removed the chain behind the models and me so it looked as if we were guests at Chatsworth House during its days as an operating estate and not as a museum. 

I encourage you to dream about where you might like to go in time and how you, as an artist, can take your audience with you. It might just require a change of clothes and your camera!

Thanks, Liza. For more articles, visit the MPB Content Hub.