Laundry Drying

洗濯物の乾燥

Concept

A charming young lady came to me at my photo exhibition and asked for a beautiful nude photo. The girl said she lived in her grandmother's old apartment, which had wooden windows and ropes on the balcony, where the linen was drying. I immediately created a future shot in my imagination and decided to do a photoshoot for her.

When I arrived at her house, I saw an old double window and an old wooden frame with the same window sill. Freshly washed white linens were drying on ropes outside this window. I liked the shooting location. I saw an old crystal vase in the room, went to a flower shop, and bought a small bouquet of daisies. Why daisies? They have white petals like sheets on ropes. I also associate chamomiles with summer, warmth, and cleanliness.

The photoshoot idea was to beautifully shoot a naked girl from her back, hanging the underwear. There was a bouquet of daisies in a vase in the area where the girl's body visually touched the window sill. The girl's body seems to "grow" from these flowers.

Inspiration

I didn’t plan this photoshoot in advance. The charming young lady herself and the old window with a balcony that was perfect for my style served as inspiration for its creation.

Choice of color

The years I would like to convey in this photo are the 70s and 80s. The location’s interior perfectly matched that period and helped make the photo card look in the style of the 70s and 80s (the golden era of film photographs). Colors, design, and furniture all compliment my concept. So I didn’t need to change the color or anything else in the general style of the picture.

Wardrobe

As planned, the girl is naked, so all questions about the wardrobe have disappeared.

Background

An old balcony with bright daylight and tree foliage. The background outside the window was originally perfect, in light color, without contrasting spots and distracting bright details. The sheet in the girl's hands is white (originally, it had a pink pattern). First, the white linen in the backlight is easy to highlight; such a background enhances the beauty of the girl's figure. Secondly, the absence of various patterns and drawings on the sheets does not distract the viewer from admiring the main character.

 I deliberately closed the window wings a little so that there was a visual effect of "beauty on the other side". I put flowers in a vase on the window sill. Daisy's bouquet in a vase makes it look like a girl's body was growing out of these flowers. I divided the daisies the way they partly reveal beautiful buttocks.

Hair and make-up

Make-up is unimportant since the girl's face is not visible. What about hair? The girl tied them in a ponytail to accentuate the back and its beautiful bend in the frame. A large curl falls on the face, making the lady even more gorgeous.

Light

Backlight from the window, partially reflected by the light walls on the balcony, revealing the structure of the body, including the delicate back and buttocks. 

Posing

Beautiful curves are needed for the body to look graceful and subtle. To achieve this, the girl leaned on her right leg, slightly bending her left. She holds linen in her hands, and so that there is no unnatural symmetry, one hand is a little higher than the other. I wanted to show the graceful profile of the girl; that’s why her head is slightly inclined to the left, and she is looking at the side to the left hand... All this creates the effect of a natural situation, not pretentious. Thanks to this, the photo is not only beautiful but also "alive".

Camera and optics

I had an old Nikon D5100 camera with a Nikkor 18-140 Zoom lens 1/80, f 3.5, ISO 200

Depth of field

According to the zoom lens, the minimum aperture is 3.5. At the same time, both the daisies in the foreground and the girl are in sharp focus. A smaller aperture will provide a blur effect which is not very suitable here. More tightly closing the aperture, for example, to a value of 5.6 or even 8, will have no effect.

Angle

In this photo, the angle (point of view) is extremely important. I had to move the camera up and down, to the right and to the left, to find the shooting point where the connection of the girl's buttocks and daisies is as perfect as possible. In this case, the shooting point is slightly shifted to the left from the center to remove the needless symmetry. The girl is also turned to the camera with her left side. This pose reveals a part of her chest, and the line between her buttocks is curved rather than straight. Any movement of the camera away from the specified spot made the photo worse.

Cropping

Cropping leaves only a window with a sill in the frame; the extra parts of the walls in the frame are cut off. The concept photo is a window and a beautiful nymph behind it. It is like a window to another beautiful world. No extra details in the frame except the window and the girl are needed.

Expression

The emotional message is warmth, comfort, cleanness, freshness. Also, admiration for the forms of the girl, and her curves. In a simple daily home situation. It wanted exactly these emotions to be in the photo.

Post-processing

Processing is done in plugins with the effect of photographic film imitation. Soft, muted tones, pleasant brownish skin tone, soft light effect. I think this kind of retouching makes the photo complete and harmonious.

Processing in a modern style, with improved clarity and bright colors, will erase the retro effect completely and will not suit the plot and time slice shown in the photo.