For these Convention photos from Firefly ACG Expo, our main focus was figuring out how to use three Godox flashes to capture clean subject portraits amid the noisy, crowded convention environment. The biggest challenge at anime conventions is cluttered backgrounds and messy overhead ambient lighting, making it essential to use flash to overpower and darken the background while making the subject pop. We used a standard three-light setup: the key light was an AD200Pro II hitting the subject from the front to shape three-dimensional depth; the rim/side light was an AD200Pro defining contours from the side to add visual separation and prevent the subject from blending into the background; and a fill light, also an AD200Pro, was used to lift shadow details—especially around the eyes and facial shadows—to make the catchlights and gaze brighter. Since the character design features prominent sheep animal ears and a large golden fork, the lighting had to cover both facial rendering and reflections off the metallic prop. We carefully adjusted the angle of the side light to bring out the metallic luster of the golden fork while leveraging ground reflections to make the White stockings and ruffled lace skirt look more luminous.
The shoot called for dynamic action captures. Because the skirt is quite voluminous, a static standing pose can look somewhat rigid, so we experimented with motion-driven poses. The jumping shot was all about timing—the low-angle upward perspective elongated the leg lines, which, paired with the White stockings and thigh ring, beautifully conveyed the character's light, agile, and cute energy. The fork prop was made quite long, serving as an effective visual leading line when airborne to balance the frame's center of gravity. For post-processing, we avoided excessive edits, mainly unifying the color grading while preserving natural skin textures. Thanks to Godox's High-Speed Sync (HSS), we could effectively darken the harsh ambient convention lighting, giving the light and shadow in this set a remarkably clean, high-end look. Shooting in crowded convention venues requires not only proper gear but also seamless coordination with the photographer—quickly dialing in light angles and effectively guiding poses are key to great shots. Cosplaying Eyjafjalla this time was definitely a test of physical stamina: the golden fork was fairly heavy, and doing multiple jumping takes got tiring, but the photographer was incredibly patient and encouraging throughout. The lighting angles we found worked wonderfully; the combination of side and fill lights not only sculpted facial features cleanly but also brought out that pure, lively personality. Besides the front close-ups, I also love the composition with one leg lifted—the White stockings paired with chunky black platform shoes looked very tactile under the lights without making the legs look short. The convention atmosphere was dialed to the max; despite the crowds, the three-light setup gave the entire shoot an exquisite, polished feel. The biggest benefit of using three strobes is having total freedom to control light placement and direction, and that level of control gave me immense confidence when portraying this character.