[Xishi Cosplay] Honor of Kings Mermaid's Song, Firefly ACG Expo On-Site Convention Photos

Bringing you convention photos of Xishi's Mermaid's Song from Honor of Kings live from the Firefly ACG Expo. This set of photos records the casual convention shots taken inside the exhibition hall, focusing heavily on showcasing the lightweight mesh material of this skin and the overall agile styling.

Regarding the styling this time, the pairing of the hair and headpiece was the first to be finalized. The silver-white long straight hair paired with blunt bangs can add an ethereal aura while making the face look smaller. The light blue jellyfish-like headpiece on top of the head is adorned with shells and pearls, with pearl tassels draping from the sides. The richness of these details ensures the headpiece section doesn't look thin. When shooting side angles and half-body shots, the tassels drape naturally, filling in the blanks on both sides of the face.

For the costume part, Mermaid's Song mainly features white and blue colors, with a golden hollowed-out lotus decoration at the chest, bringing an inherent layer of three-dimensional structure. To ensure the clothing still has layers under the relatively spacious and bright lighting environment of the exhibition hall, a large amount of lightweight white mesh skirt hem was retained, with bead strands and metal sequins embellishing the cuffs and neckline. When doing arm raises or spinning movements in front of the lens, the rhythm of the light mesh is excellent without appearing rigid. Combined with the natural light pouring in through the large glass windows of the venue, it creates a translucent and dreamlike visual sensation.

The shoe and leg pairing is also one of the focal points of this look. I chose transparent chunky-heeled high heels; under reflections, this heel material can blur the visual seam between the foot and the leg. Paired with white long leg sleeves, the sleeves feature light blue and golden lines that correspond entirely with the top's color scheme. This matching has a small detail during actual shooting—the center of gravity relies completely on single-leg standing or slight heel-raising to maintain. Especially when taking full-body photos standing on one foot, you need to control the force exerted by the instep to let the leg lines present a smooth state while allowing the transparency of the high heels to fully perform.

For the makeup, I intentionally weakened dark eyeshadow and selected a light pinkish-purple color for the colored contacts to make the gaze look softer. The corners of the eyes featured slightly heavier blush and a faint reddish blending under the eyes, echoing the ethereal feel of the overall styling while keeping the entire makeup look clean. The base makeup was executed very solidly because of the crowds at the convention venue; I needed to control oiliness as much as possible to ensure that the positions of facial highlights and shadows remained consistent across repeated reshoots from different angles.

During the shoot, the photographer found a relatively clean exhibition hall corridor area, utilizing large vertical pillars as the background to avoid interference from cluttered crowds and booths. Medium and telephoto lenses were primarily used to compress the background, ensuring the character subject could stand out amidst the blurred crowd. A few sequences of movements experimented with continuous dynamics like single-hand lifting, double-hand gentle pinching, and single-leg independent standing. Photo 1 and Photo 3 are single-leg standing poses from different angles respectively, which beautifully display the details of the leg sleeves and transparent high heels while capturing the tiny highlights generated by the bead strands on the clothes under the light.

The light difference between the inside and outside of a convention is actually huge. This set of photos primarily utilized the large glass windows of the inner hall as a natural softbox. The color temperature of the light was quite accurate, resulting in no major deviations during white balance adjustments in post-processing. Under indoor natural light, the fabric of the costume presented a soft off-white and lake blue; slightly adding a touch of warm tones can separate the skin tone from the clothes. Because the styling involves a large amount of transparent mesh and beads, the reflective points and light-transmitting areas required individual fine-tuning during post-processing to guarantee details wouldn't be swallowed by highlights.

Overall, the design of Xishi's Mermaid's Song inherently carries water elements and cold, crisp traits. When restoring it on-site, the focus lies precisely on whether that lightweight, flowing feel can be expressed. From the wig to the final landing of the shoes and socks, combined with the cooperation of the natural light in the venue, I am quite satisfied with the final presentation. Meeting many fellow enthusiasts on the day of the convention and their recognition of this highly recognizable look also enhanced the comfort of the on-site shoot.