>>6977282 (OP)
white balance is no issue if you shoot raw
you're going to be doing portrait photography at a convention and you have to choose just how much of it you want to do. you're going to have to deal with lighting (windows during the day are your friend), whether you want to bring them over somewhere else, how you want to have them pose, etc.

that's on top of the technical stuff that you still have to learn like the triangle of shutter speed, aperture, iso and what they do. first things first is figure out that triangle. it shouldn't take you long, maybe a day or two, a week tops. then you get into the rest of it.

>>6977333
Cheers, that sounds like a good place to start.
I've had a bit of a play with some of the basic settings, so hopefully it won't take too long to get a hang of things.

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>>6977461
http://camerasim.com/camera-simulator/
poke at a setting and see what it does til you figure out what it does
then move on to another setting and do it again
you basically have to balance all three

also on /p/ we have http://pseudosticky.wikia.com/wiki/Pseudo_sticky which has a bunch of information and links to information
i'm not sure i'd recommend actually posting on /p/ til you get your feet off the ground because we are a merciless bunch of assholes

Treat cosplay like a fashion shoot, not potrait. Cosplayers want to look pretty but they also want to show off their costume. Always shoot no closer than waist-up and ideally you should always shoot full body. Don't use a focal length any wider than 50mm for full body and 70mm for waist-up. You likely won't be used to this with wildlife and it may seem a pain at cons, but you've got to learn to move your feet to frame the subject. Zoom lenses or wide angle lenses are not good ideas, even if it seems easier at first.

Let the cosplayer pose because even if you give them simple direction they won't know how to follow. They probably also know their character better than you do and already have some signature poses practised.

Keep the framing simple when you're on the con floor. Creative shots are for photoshoots, the con floor demands basic. Keep them in the middle of the frame with plenty of room. You can always crop it more interestingly later.

Use the largest aperture and fastest shutter speed you can get away with. On a con floor you probably will never be shooting with the ISO any lower than 400. 1/200 f/2.8 ISO 800 is a good starting point for conventions.

Always stay in full manual and learn your camera's controls well. Convention lighting varies so much and your subjects will vary in colour so much that your camera's sensors never know what the fuck is going on and will give you wildly diferent readings in every shot.

In post, cosplayers expect colours to pop, higher contrast and excessive sharpening. The basic contrast, vibrance and saturation sliders in Lightroom do this perfectly fine. The sharpening in Lightroom can be okay unless your camera gives a lot of noise at high ISO, in which case you need to sharpen in Photoshop instead. Use spot healing in LR or PS to remove skin blemishes because cosplayers have a lot and they hate them showing up in photos.

>>6977475
>>6977713
Thanks so much for all the tips, there are so many things I hadn't thought to take into consideration!
At least I have some experience with editing, so I can focus on learning to handle the camera in different situations.

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>>6978216
Oops, here's part 1

>>6978216
>>6978221
Oh, thanks! Definitely saving those!

>>6978221
>Backlit high dynamic range
>Actually a normal photo with fill flash.

thanks for the tips, those will be useful

>>6979565
hardly anyone actually knows what hdr is, it's just a buzz phrase to make them sound 1337

>>6979565
>>6979984
Person who made that tries to tell others what to do and they're using an outdated entry-level DSLR. Go figure they don't understand fill.

>>6980144
>canon d400
oh wow i missed that

my sides

>>6980168
>>6980144
gear fags detected

>>6981274
So you think an entry-level DSLR from seven years ago with a processor three generations below what is in current iPhones is a good tool for someone to use while lecturing others on how to be a better photographer?

You can get a second hand 5D for less than a new 700D. There's no excuse for anybody who thinks that much of their ability to be using a camera like that still.