The Gourds Family

The idea of the composition was to create a warm and atmospheric image. I wanted to arrange the papayas to simulate a happy family on a warm night, with the mother leaning on the father and the children playing.

From creating this composition, I learned a great deal about how to play with colours and lighting to achieve the desired effect.

1 - The first task was to find three papayas of different shapes and sizes to simulate a family.

2 - To make the subjects "sit" more firmly, I placed them on a piece of rotten wood. After searching, I found the perfect piece of rotten wood near the train station.

3 - To create warmth and soft light, I hung a dark yellow cloth in the window. I also chose a piece of black velvet to block some of the light and create the "triangular" shadows in the background.

“I wanted to arrange the papayas to simulate a happy family on a warm night, with the mother leaning on the father and the children playing.”

4 - To add warmth to the image, I used two warm filters, Kenko 85 and Hoya 81C, and a polarizing filter to reduce reflections on the surface of the fruit. This also increased the saturation of the colours.

5 - To enhance the effect of the background, I coloured it in the appropriate places. However, depth of field had to be constantly adjusted through the viewfinder. This was, after all, still in the analogue era.

6 - Thankfully, when the preparation was done well, the shooting was completed smoothly. Perhaps the image had already been burned quite vividly into my mind.