The making of 'Half & half'

By Editor Michel Romaggi in collaboration with the author Nishida
Edited and published by Yvette Depaepe, the 21^st of August 2024

'Half & half'

Thank you, Nishida, for sharing the secrets of your work with us. Could you explain to us the various steps you took to achieve this wonderful photo?
The location was in Shibuya, Tokyo, in a public passageway just outside Shibuya Station. The model is Ms Serina, a freelance model. She has experience in ballet dancing and is adept at using her slender limbs to strike graceful poses. In the left half of the photograph there is a large square column, the surface of which is covered with what appears to be stainless steel, allowing it to reflect light and shadow. I had always wanted to make an interesting photograph using this feature of the pillar and the light coming from the left. My habit of taking street photographs helps me to find places suitable for portrait photography.

I was using a SONY α7RⅤ camera. After upgrading from the α7Ⅱ to the α7Ⅲ, I bought the α7RⅤ as soon as it was released. What I wanted was the Eye AF performance of this camera. When shooting portraits, it is often important to focus on the model's eyes, and with this camera I can let the camera do some of the focusing. This allows me to concentrate more on composition, atmosphere and expression, and to be more creative. I used a SONY FE 35mm F1.4 GM lens. While I often use a 50mm lens for indoor photography, I prefer the 35mm lens for outdoor photography because of its versatility and the lifelike quality it provides, similar to a wide angle lens. No flash was used and the photo was taken using natural outdoor light.

The model was positioned with half of her body behind the pillar so that her figure was reflected on the surface of the pillar. I deliberately included people walking in the passage on the right to add a sense of reality. To balance the sense of reality with an impressionistic feel, I shot with an aperture of F=1.6. By directing the model's gaze to the right rather than to the camera, I aimed to create a mysterious atmosphere. The combination of the model's black hair, black clothes and white face with the background and the reflection on the left created a similar combination. I believe I was able to merge the real world on the right and the reflected world on the left, along with the model's expression, to coexist in one photograph, representing both reality and non-reality. The title "Half & Half" symbolises these two worlds. The border is deliberately placed slightly to the right of the centre to balance the composition, as the right side contains more information about the real world.
I used Lightroom Classic for post-processing. Although the photo was originally taken in colour, I removed the colour information to emphasise the concept by converting it to black and white, focusing only on shape and light and dark. I made fine adjustments to the strength of the whites and blacks in different areas to make the concept clearer.

How do you choose your models and the composition of your photos?
I rely on the system of photography meet-ups or I directly ask freelance models to pose for portraits. The organisers of the meet-ups rent large house studios, register models from their roster and invite photographers to the sessions. We photographers book the date and the model we want to shoot over the web and then attend the session. Sometimes these sessions take place outdoors. When I hire a freelance model directly, I rent a small studio individually. Outdoor shoots are also an option. My photos vary widely, including colour and black and white, indoors and outdoors, sometimes with decorations and sometimes without. The type of photo changes depending on which room or wall I shoot on in the big house studio. The direction of the development process varies depending on the characteristics of each photo and what I want to express, resulting in either colour or black and white photos. As I'm an amateur and not a commercial photographer, I don't need a uniform photographic style. I finish each photo in the direction I think is best.

'Sunset'

'Silhouette / silhouette'

To finish this tutorial, can you tell us a little about your photography practice?
I started taking photographs because I wanted to record my daughter's first day at school. It was the first time I bought a camera with interchangeable lenses. It was a SONY NEX-5R. That was more than 10 years ago. After that, I used to take pictures of flowers blooming by the roadside while riding my bike or walking around my neighbourhood. I enjoyed using a macro lens to blend the petals into the background. Later, I wanted to capture something more dynamic, so I started photographing Japanese street dance events such as the 'Yosakoi Festival' and the 'Awa Dance Festival'. I bought a more powerful SONY α7 II and added to my collection of lenses. However, with the spread of COVID-19, all dance events were cancelled. As a result, I went back to photographing flowers, but my desire to photograph people didn't go away, so I started taking portraits. I retired a year ago and now I have the freedom to do what I want during the week. Now my life revolves around photography. I spend my time taking photos, posting on photo review sites such as 1X, sharing my work on social media to reach a wide audience, attending various photography exhibitions with a focus on portraiture, and a few times a year, exhibiting my own photos in a few photo exhibitions.

I am grateful to 1X for giving me such an honourable opportunity, and to everyone who has read this statement to the end.