I decided to edit these pictures first before the qipao photos (which would be the Part 2 of the Chinese Cultural Center Portrait shoot) because a) I've never done a night portrait shoot before and I was anxious to see the results and share them, and b) I really liked these because I thought they looked badass. So here we are. After the daylight left and we messed around some more, my friend and I decided to brave the cold (more her than me since she was still wearing her dress) and try some night portraits. Tempe Town Lake is pretty at night, as long as you don't look at the water, and I thought the bridge lights, artificial lighting, and her jacket would all match very well together in photos. Leaning against a pole looking badass was the first round of shots here. I used my speedlight on a low light setting and a very high angle (like 60 or 70 degrees) with a bounce card to shoot these in addition to a low shutter speed (from 1/40-1/20 seconds), with the camera of course mounted on a tripod.

Of course, all these shots were far away, and my friend wanted to try some ones that were closer. I have to say, these are my favorites, they really make her look badass, in my opinon (not that she isn't already).

Moving on from the light pole, we decided to just do standing shots. Also, since all the other ones were serious, we threw in some smiling pics into the mix. For these, I didn't use a flash, instead I used a much lower shutter speed (1/15-1/10 sec or so), which I didn't think would work but the results speak for themselves. I'm not sure if I like them better or not though. Trial and error will tell me what to do in the future.

Oh, and because I also had a leather jacket, she wanted me to pose with her in our leather jackets so we can be badass together. These used the same flash settings as the first pictures, with me using the camera's timer to take the photos. We're about to drop our newest mixtape, yo.