Havent posted in a while. Here is a new one

i love it

is it not a little bit too gray (that was my first impression)?

again, i love it

I think it's not bright enough. Not sure butterfly lighting is best for this kind of glamour shot with reflective makeup on.
The jewels are too big and distract, not enhance.
That big shiny highlight under the eye is distracting.
In this case I might have either put more makeup (base) on her and/or did some skin work in post to give the skin a more perfect surreal look.
I think a lot of attention should be given to the hair to make every strand absolutely perfect as best you can.

I love the idea of this shot with the crystals and the feather and whatnot, but I think you should have used smaller crystals, as Kechar mentioned, but for a different reason. I work a lot with crystals (not photography wise) and the smaller crystals sparkle way, way more than the bigger ones. I can't tell from the photo if these are Swarovski crystals, but Swarovski crystals are worth the extra money you'll spend. I buy mine from New York (ejoyce.com) but Michael's sells them in smaller quantities. I'd also use a different color than black, or at least use fewer black, as they don't reflect the light as well as the clear or colored ones do. Swarovski makes a beautiful aqua marine and purple that would go nicely in a setting like this.

I would also get a larger peacock feather and be careful to not "break" it. Do you see how this feather is broken in the middle? Details matter. Perhaps you could clone out the bobby pins, as there is no reason to see those, and the blood vessel in her camera side eye.

I think this could be dynamite if tweaked just that little extra bit. Terrific idea, beautiful model!

If you decide to take my advice on the crystals, don't buy anything bigger than ss10 or ss12 max. These look like SS 20....

LOL funny Sue.
We have to "bedazzle", as they call it, out daughter's dance competition costumes every year with Swarovski crystals.

Thanks for the feedback.. and a few notes:
the model showed up to me this way =) it was just for fun. I told her to surprise me
the darkness, this is what i was going for.
This was a shoot testing out the sigma 70-200 2.8 OS model with a 5DmkII - Cheetah 400 strobe, 36" octabox

the raw shot

1150 x 1725

EMBED PREVENTED, IMAGE TOO LARGE: http://i6.photobucket.​com …oactive83/jc/IM​G_2185.jpg Click here to see our image rules.

i like you processing, thanks for sharing raw image

Big difference seeing the RAW.
I would still like it nice and bright, but ya know that's just personal pref.
VERY nice skin work!!!
That shiny makeup reflecting the light under her left eye is still a bit distracting.
If you shot this with a "main camera left, fill camera right" lighting setup instead of the butterfly setup you would have probably gotten more zing out of those crystals and less shine on the eye makeup...I think.

Nice work!