Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII stands with folded arms beside a lit drinks vending machine in Osaka.

Tifa Lockhart Cosplay — Osaka Street Shoot, Photo 9

Final Fantasy VII

Photo 9 of 10

Tifa Lockhart standing with folded arms beside a lit drinks vending machine on an Osaka street. Vending machines are one of the most ordinary objects in Japan and one of the most reliably photogenic — a self-illuminated box of saturated colour standing on an otherwise grey pavement.

Here it acts as a practical light source as well as a set piece, throwing colour onto the black gloves and the side of the costume from below. The folded-arms stance is closed and composed, which balances the busy, colour-blocked machine beside her.

Small details like this are what separate an on-location set from a studio one: the character is placed inside an environment that has its own logic, rather than in front of a background chosen to flatter her.

All Tifa Lockhart photos

More from the Tifa Lockhart photoshoot

Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII leans forward with hands on her knees under the Shinsekai street arch. Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII stands under a black street arch with the Tsutenkaku tower behind her in Osaka. Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII poses hand on hip in an Osaka alley beside a shutter covered in stickers. Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII laughs at a wide Osaka street crossing with trucks and the Tsutenkaku tower behind.