This time, I chose night cherry blossoms as the background to shoot Blue Reimu, a Touhou fanon variation of Reimu Hakurei from Touhou Project. While the character's original design is dominated by red and white, this Blue Reimu variant carries a natural cool detachment. Combined with the pink floral sea at night, it is perfect for creating a quiet and mysterious atmosphere.
The costume for the shoot was anchored by deep blue, accented with generous white hollow-out lace trims, and even the headpiece featured matching blue fabric pieced with lace. This blue-and-white palette actually stands out sharply against warm environments, but because of this contrast, when the warm lights from the night flower sea hit the outfit, a beautiful cool-and-warm balance was formed.
For makeup, I opted for a smooth and clear base paired with softly smudged reddish eyeshadow, finished with a darker lip shade to anchor the pale skin tone. Long straight black hair with blunt bangs is Reimu's iconic feature; the weight at the ends of this hairstyle creates a graceful drape in profile close-ups, forming a textural contrast against the lightweight lace fabric.
The detail of holding a flower in my mouth was the most challenging part of the whole shoot. This pose required careful angle control to avoid obscuring facial features while ensuring the flower stem looked natural. In practice, I tried multiple angle adjustments before settling on a position that rested gently against the lips without completely covering them, using the direction of the stem to guide the viewer's gaze.
Holding a long black rod connected with white paper talismans served as a major prop, functioning as a visual marker of her character traits. The arrangement and drape of the paper talismans created vertical lines across the frame, breaking up the circular shapes of the background branches and the warm color block of the subject, thereby enhancing the geometric depth.
During filming, the photographer used a very shallow depth of field, blurring foreground branches and some paper talismans into soft color spots. This approach allowed the main subject to stand out against the intricate night cherry blossom backdrop, enhancing the dreamy feel. The perspectives of the two photos differ slightly: the direct eye contact in the first photo offers a sense of interaction, while the profile half-body shot in the second focuses on displaying contours and headpiece layers.
Regarding my understanding of Touhou fanon, this Blue Reimu variant feels less loud and outgoing compared to the original, carrying more of a cool, serene texture. During the shoot, I intentionally restrained my facial expressions, avoiding dramatic emotional displays, instead relying on a focused gaze and relaxed posture to convey the character's self-contained tranquility amidst night floral scents. Compared to noisy daytime shoots, this was a completely different expressive attempt.
Outdoor Night cherry blossom photography places demanding requirements on lighting. We chose a spot in the cherry blossom grove assisted by warm streetlights, where light filtered and refracted through trees and leaves naturally formed a soft ambient glow. Building on this, the photographer added subtle key light to my face, preserving skin textures and pupil details. In post-processing, we retained the warm environment color rather than forcing the entire scene into cool tones, as the intersection of warm and cool better matches the authentic feel of a night grove.
The final presentation aligns closely with my original imagination for this Blue Reimu Touhou fanon design. Intertwining romantic night blossoms with blue-and-white lace attire, I aimed to present a quiet, composed image rather than an intense combat stance. Character temperament does not always need dramatic motion to shine through; quiet close-ups can convey just as much information, which is precisely where the charm of portraiture lies.