Anika, and playing with modifiers

...or the lack thereof. These were either shot bare with a reflector, or with a 48-inch octobox. I actually like how both worked, for different reasons. She's young so her skin can handle the hard light with minimal retouching, lucky girl. She is also just starting out in modeling so I tried to give her some direction as far as facial expressions and posing go. Posing was ok, but it didn't work as well as I'd hoped for facial expressions. But she's still gorgeous and hopefully has a bright future of modeling in front of her.

Hair, makeup and wardrobe were also all by me. Shot with the 6D & Tamron 28-75 and Elinchrom monolight. C&C welcome

1.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …paintedlotus/11​079961533/

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IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …paintedlotus/11​079844674/

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I prefer the blank look personally, I think that's one of the marks of the more professional models.. side from a bit of rigidity on the posing i think the light was very well done and crisp, everything nicely in focus.

Thanks, yeah I agree about the blank look, that didn't bother me so much. It was more that her mouth seemed to not have as much expressiveness. That will change as she gains experience though.

#4 wins it for me

paintedlotus wrote in post #16494289
Thanks, yeah I agree about the blank look, that didn't bother me so much. It was more that her mouth seemed to not have as much expressiveness. That will change as she gains experience though.

mouth? who's looking at the mouth with such striking eyes?

I really like these. Well done.

Out of these, I enjoyed #3 (b/w) the most. Just expresses confidence to me. Well done set.

great work and yes gorgeous model only thing i have to nitpic is in 1 and 6 is on the shadow side of her face id clean up the small facial hairs.. to me they really pop with the higher contrast thats in that area ,.. and the facial expression are good but man those eyes...

Thanks everyone. bartc, I'm planning to go back and tinker with the small facial hairs. I'll have to play around with different techniques; I didn't really care for the over-cooked, plasticky, barbie-like feel when I worked on them at first. I'm going to try a few different methods and see what happens.

paintedlotus wrote in post #16505470
Thanks everyone. bartc, I'm planning to go back and tinker with the small facial hairs. I'll have to play around with different techniques; I didn't really care for the over-cooked, plasticky, barbie-like feel when I worked on them at first. I'm going to try a few different methods and see what happens.

totally agree with you there,. ive found a few good tutorials on youtube that go over how to get right of those hairs that have worked well for me... and ya a plastic skin on that model would kill the shots...

I like them all, but would like to see some more shadow falloff on #2. Young attractive women make photography easy.

I love 3, 4 is great but seeing both ears is unorthodox. I don't know if I love it or hate it.

Your key should be a bit higher. It would give more depth to the eye sockets.

DocFrankenstein wrote in post #16507645
I love 3, 4 is great but seeing both ears is unorthodox. I don't know if I love it or hate it.

Your key should be a bit higher. It would give more depth to the eye sockets.

Interesting! I never even thought of that (showing both ears I mean). Something to keep in mind. And thanks for the info about the light being higher, yeah this wasn't set up very high at all. I had the octobox boomed but couldn't extend the arm all that much, long boring story about how (at the time) I couldn't properly attach a weight to the boom arm to act as a counterbalance. But good to know, and that shouldn't be an issue in the future.

I'm also short, so this tends to come into play with where my lights are set at a given time, for good or ill!

Thanks everyone

#4 & #3 for me, definitely! I love the processing and the even toned lighting in #3. Having her looking in more of a profile pose really helped to give some distinction and I like seeing her in a softer profile.

#4, frankly I think it's your best compositional setup. The face up in the corner according to the rule of thirds just gave this a visually dynamic punch. Great work, and nice color processing!