What attracted me most about this shoot was the contrast and mix of this JK uniform and the astronaut helmet. The white sailor suit paired with a navy blue pleated skirt was originally a very daily campus style, but after wearing the bulky white vintage helmet, the overall vibe completely changed. The metal buckles and knobs on the helmet, as well as the connected thick corrugated soft hose, are full of heavy industrial and sci-fi feelings. The warm yellow LED strip wrapped around the soft hose is the finishing touch, injecting a full sense of technology into the cool-toned night.
The scene was chosen under the radio telescope of the observatory. The huge metal trusses and parabolic surfaces are extremely oppressive in the night, and looking up at them while standing in the waist-high grass can intuitively feel the strong contrast between human insignificance and the vastness of the universe. Because the blue hour is very short and the light changes extremely fast, we had to complete multiple groups of composition within a limited time. The on-site lighting is extremely dark, and the foreground character must rely on fill light. The warm yellow light comes from the side and bottom, illuminating the mask and uniform, forming a strong cold-warm contrast and further strengthening the screen tension like a sci-fi movie.
To capture the starry sky particles and the blue hour sky, we waited on-site for a long time. The helmet is actually quite heavy, and wearing it for a long time makes the neck very sore, but to maintain the emotion in the frame, I still had to maintain various postures. With hands clasped in front of the chest in closed-eye meditation, raising a hand to say hello, or hugging arms and lowering the head, different body languages convey different loneliness and sci-fi emotions. The mask opening, closing, or presenting a semi-transparent state also corresponds to different breathing senses and story senses.
To capture this atmospheric feel, choosing the right venue is the first step. The geometric lines and grandness provided by the radio telescope are difficult to replace with ordinary scenes. Secondly is the texture of the props; the addition of the helmet and soft hose makes the picture layers richer and prevents it from looking thin. Finally, the post-processing starry sky overlay and particle effects make the whole picture full of cosmic romantic atmosphere. Throughout the entire shoot, although the process was somewhat tiring, seeing the final photos made everything feel completely worthwhile.