My Part 2 of my San Diego Comic Con entry is still being worked on, seeing as there are so many photos huhu :( But until then....

Who doesn't love a pretty Asian girl? Well two of them are even better!

Earlier this year, I was asked by two of my trusty models, Vikky and Jenny, to do a simple girlfriend/birthday shoot (their birthdays are around the same time) with balloons. It was my gift to them since they have been great models for me over the last few years.

Jenny was always up for lending a hand when I wanted to try out a new lighting modifier or technique and needed a model, and she always went with any direction I gave her. For that, I am forever grateful.

Vikky is great because she first contacted me on her own and offered to model, and being the picky bastard I am, I was pleasantly surprised and immediately said yes! With her, I never had to ask; she always offered when she wanted new pictures.

It's great to know that through my work, that's how they became friends! And now it has led to this shoot.

These were actually all straight-out-of-camera jpegs with minimal retouching; the colors are as vibrant as you see. Although I typically shoot RAW + jpeg, after browsing the jpeg files I really liked the punch right out of camera. So I went with it, and saved myself an extra step of batch processing the raw files. I don't always do this, but if I'm in a time crunch and the jpegs look good to my eye, then why not?

The lighting for these shots was pretty simple. I used an ancient Novatron 600VR lying around with its three heads, and employed a 60-inch Photek Softlighter II (the poor man's Octabank, but hey it's good enough for Anne Leibovitz) for the main light. Actually, the Softlighter II is more or less permanently affixed to the Novatron due to the Nova's great power output that's necessary to fill up the enclosed umbrella space. Plus, it's a hassle to maneuver the wired Novatron head through the Softlighter's sock-hole-opening thing. So I just leave it on all the time, and it's one of my inside-the-studio-only lights used mainly for seamless white shots when I want it.

Here is the lighting diagram used for these shots:

I usually like to keep my edge-lighting a stop or a little more over the main light to give the subject more pop.

Here's a 100% crop of the above photo.  The Panasonic 12-35mm (24-70mm FOV "equivalent" in 35mm terms) is a pro-quality lens, delivering sharp results.  You can see the Softlighter II main light source in Jenny's eye. — Here's a 100% crop of the above photo. The Panasonic 12-35mm (24-70mm FOV "equivalent" in 35mm terms) is a pro-quality lens, delivering sharp results. You can see the Softlighter II main light source in Jenny's eye.

If you would like to see more of either of these two girls, let me know!