Why? I don't understand.

I did a shoot with a lady and one flash for a starting modeling portfolio. The results are here:
http://www.photography​-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=165200

For some reason the simplest portrait which I threw in almost by accident gets to be the "best picture" All of the others which I was trying to light and pose carefully aren't even mentioned.

Do you agree with the comments?
Why is this so?

because your composition on the last is great.

It's simple. She's a new model, if that...even a model... but that's a different discussion. All her expression is WAY unnatural. The one you accidentally capture is when she's in a natural state.

Being a model/portraiture photographer is more than just snapping a picture and telling the model what you want. It's much more deeper than that.

That is why all you see in the people forum are baby pictures. they are all natural expression. they look right.

Dear Doc,

I think I would agree with the consensus. In my mind the problem with all the others is, I'm asking myself why are we here, or what are we doing here, or what's it all about?

Conversely, with the last shot, your immediate reaction is that this is the one that all her friends and family are going to be willing to buy. It's sensitive, it has a mood that is consistent throughout and it is beautiful in its simplicity. The other shots may find their niche market, but the last one has the universal appeal. Some of the earlier shots had some technical problems like over or underexposure or weird composition.

Runner up for me was the head and shoulders shot in color. That shot just needed for her to lift her head a bit to get better lighting on her face.

Not bein a professional photographer or even anywhere close to being that way what i have to say may not work for u the way it has for me in the past...
What i did with a girl i knew was i got a few of her friends to come with the two of us and i asked them to stay a certain distance back from her, But i got them all to laugh and joke and basically be themselves... it worked.... the pics came out fairly well. and she was happy enuff with them,
The pics i had tried b4 where "posed" and they where attrocious btw.
(Would post 1 or 2 but they dissapeared in amongst the other 12gig worth of pics i lost)

Thank you for the feedback everybody.

I guess I was more attached to the other images because more effort went into them. I was using the flash, metering carefully etc etc... so I assumed that the simple natural light snapshot automatically won't be able to compare.

Hey doc - I liked the first attachment in post #5...although it doesn't look like butterfly to my very untrained eye. But, I do like it quite a bit. And of course, the last! Anyway, I've noticed that with my sales, I don't hardly sell the shots that I really like. Customers always pick shots that I wouldn't and I really think it's a part of the business I'm going to have to work on. Like the others said, I'm pretty sure it's capturing that expression that makes the sale.

But, I think I have an easy solution for you...all you need to do is purchase and use on a regular basis one Alien Green Alien Bee and one Mellow Yellow Alien Bee...you pick the power range of course! heh heh.