In late July in Tokyo, the summer heat hadn't completely faded. When shooting this set of photos, we happened to be at Shibamata Taishakuten in Katsushika District. Having communicated in advance to secure the shooting permit from the temple, we chose this wooden corridor location.
The theme chosen this time was 'afternoon melancholy' (昼下がりの憂鬱), wishing to capture a retro cinematic feel by taking advantage of the descending afternoon sun. If you encounter harsh overhead midday light, you actually don't need to be too anxious; as long as you find the right shaded eaves and let the natural light leak through the gaps in the wooden pillars, the dappled light and shadow can instead become a highly layered part of your composition. The first photo and the last close-up of me lying down were specifically captured to showcase this state of light and shadow falling on the fabric and my face.
Speaking of the costume, I readjusted the layers of the red-and-white dominant color scheme, especially the stacking of the ruffles on the collar and cuffs. Because the afternoon light becomes very harsh, if the fabric is not crisp enough or the patterns are too messy, it can easily look dirty under strong light. Therefore, before shooting, I specifically used a garment steamer to treat all fabrics to ensure the pleats were in a naturally draped state. This way, when the photographer snaps the shots, the boundary between light and shadow on the folds has a highly premium texture. The large bow on my head is also the soul of the photos; its volume needs to be large enough to hold its own against such a simple, rustic wooden background.
Because the light at the shooting site changed rapidly, especially with the shadows of the trees and cloud cover, we basically captured them in a quick-snap style. A non-smiling or slightly spaced-out micro-expression actually fits much more easily with the shrine maiden's quiet and somewhat detached temperament. Paired with a restrained sitting posture and a bowed head, the overall atmosphere came together instantly. The shot of me lying down was actually not easy to film; the wooden floor was very hard, and when lying down, the bow on my back would press against my body. It took a long time to adjust the pose to relax both my shoulders and my gaze. During breaks in the shoot, we also noticed occasional falling leaves in the corridor, so we picked up a few and placed them nearby to serve as part of the foreground blur.
The entire process was actually very quiet, with no large-range movements, mostly confined to a few pillars along the corridor. To achieve a vintage texture, we slightly unified the color temperature in post-processing, brightened some shadow areas, and preserved the wood grain details of the doors and windows, ensuring the highlights didn't overflow too much. The makeup this time was relatively light, mainly contouring the face, with the eyes and brows defined by clean and sharp lines. In such a down-to-earth shooting environment, a makeup look that is too heavy would appear overly anime-like and somewhat disconnected from the simple, ancient temperament of the wooden courtyard.
Based on experience, when shooting in this kind of outdoor ancient architectural environment, one must use a telephoto lens to compress the space, trying to avoid wide-angle lenses that might capture too many modern architectural elements or wire fences, which would ruin the mood. We adjusted different focal lengths between poses, capturing both a slight panorama depth and close-ups that highlight the shoulder and neck lines like in Figure 1, giving the entire photo set narrative variations. In fact, the light and shadow in this corridor are highly interesting; they change every twenty minutes in the afternoon, so the shoot relied not just on posing but on the joy of following the light to capture dynamic movements.
Regarding the restoration of this look, the core actually lies in the position of the accessories and the hairstyle. The two hair accessories beside the ears and the straps on the collar must be secured to ensure they don't shift during larger movements. This required us to keep our movements very small; many photos were captured in a semi-static state. There are no exaggerated actions in this set of photos, only a quiet atmosphere. I hope the final images can convey that lazy, subtle sadness unique to a summer afternoon during this Shrine Maiden costume photography session.