Photo recipe: the laundry girl

Saturday 24 September 2022, 20:20 by Elja Trum | 4,752 views | 9 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Over the past few days, I have received some lovely reactions to a photo I took recently. A good reason to tell you more about this photo, the idea behind it, how I shot it and how I edited it.

Amanda - f/2.8, 1/1000s, 125 ISO @ 45mm
We had the shoot booked for a few weeks already, and for a while it looked like the autumn weather was going to disrupt our plans. Fortunately, it eventually stayed dry and warm enough for us to go ahead with the shoot.

I have been making photos that tell a (small) story for a while now. So instead of simply having a model look into the lens, you ask them to do something. In my view, this makes the photo more interesting for the viewer.

I am a fan of the Ukrainian photographer David Dubnitskiy, and this photo of a woman doing the laundry inspired me for the photo I made.

I like the vintage style and the casual addition of a touch of mischief.

The shoot

For the shoot, I had found a small park nearby with a pond and beautiful wooden decking in the water. It is always useful to regularly go out scouting for nice locations in your local area. You will naturally come across gems like this.

Of course, I had sent Amanda a moodboard beforehand, which also included my example photo. For this idea, she had brought along a dress that could be immersed in the pond. It is great when your model thinks along with you like that!

During the session, I also did quite a bit with flash, but for this shoot I only used the available light.

For that, I had to wait until the sun disappeared behind the clouds, because the sunlight would otherwise have created harsh shadows on Amanda. A thick cloud therefore provided lovely soft light here.

I took dozens of photos during the laundry session, from different angles and viewpoints. The pond naturally limited those viewpoints somewhat, but there was still plenty to try.

In the end, I really liked this photo. I took it from just above the water, using the camera's live view to see what I had in the frame.

Post-processing

I only edited the photo in Lightroom. Apart from some standard adjustments, the toning of the photo naturally stands out most here. Below is the unedited photo, straight from the camera.

Things I did, apart from the toning, included brightening the face, softening the skin, and sharpening the wood and clothing, adding more texture.

I am very pleased with the result. By doing a little more preparation beforehand, you can make a photo that, in my view, is more than just a nice photo of a woman.

Update: straightening the horizon

Henk wondered in the comments why the horizon was slanted. I had of course noticed this while editing. The only thing is that straightening the horizon means Amanda's head gets cropped at the top.

So, to prevent this, I decided to straighten the photo only minimally. It did not bother me either.

Still, not having enough of the photo left for straightening is naturally not much of a problem these days. So I used Photoshop and the handy 'content-aware' function to straighten the horizon after all.

What do you think? A necessary adjustment, or is a slanted horizon also fine in a photo like this?

You might also like

• 

  10 tips for photographing with a vintage lens

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  The follow-up to photographing with a vintage lens

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Photographing with a vintage lens, or a manual lens

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  The costs of getting started with vintage lenses

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Tip: make your own photo cookbook!

  by Elvira Smit

• 

  Reversing the Front Lens Element of a Vintage Lens

  by Nando Harmsen

9 comments

Have your say

Please note: Articles older than a week can only be commented on by signed-in visitors.
Would you still like to comment? sign in or create a free account.