Fatal Beauty

[Colin Southern]

One more from yesterday's studio shoot. Hard key light, soft fill & hair lights.

I figured I'd been shooting her all evening, so must be her turn to shoot me (luckily she missed!)

[jiro]

I Like the composition and the concept. Colin. I'd probably recommend lowering the height of the main light. The shadow on the nose touches the upper lip area. I'm not so sure if that is really a standard on this kind of shot. It'd be nice if you can make a deliberate comparison between 2 shots; one with the shadow not touching the lips and this one. I probably read too much books, that's why.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Willie,

I like to use Rembrant lighting for many of these types of shot (hence the shadow connecting with the mouth); unfortunately though, with high-contrast lighting, one has to also bring the lit much further around the front to avoid "dead eye", which changes it's effect.

I actually varied the light in height and position quite a bit for this series, and this was the best I came up with - also, lowering it more puts a shadow on the face from the gun

[jiro]

Now I understand. Thanks for the explanation. She's really a nice model, btw.

[PhotoLover]

I think a little bit more retouching on her nose and cheeks would be better. Just my opinion.

[jeeperman]

I like it Colin, but if I can sound picky for a moment. Two trigger fingers?

[Colin Southern]

I think a little bit more retouching on her nose and cheeks would be better. Just my opinion.

Hi PhotoLover,

Thanks for that.

I thought about it, but decided against it ... for a normal soft light portrait I would, but with hard light / gun etc we thought that something a bit more edgy would be more appropriate. Having said that though, the hard light (a medium grid) is pretty harsh on skin texture, so I did a bit of skin smoothing (or she might have pulled out a real gun afterwards!), but left the specularity.

PS: What's your first name?

[Colin Southern]

Now I understand. Thanks for the explanation. She's really a nice model, btw.

Thanks Willie .... yeah - she's a lovely girl & lovely to work with. Very tall, with a great figure too.

[Colin Southern]

I like it Colin, but if I can sound picky for a moment. Two trigger fingers?

Hi Paul,

I think it was her first time modeling in a studio - by that stage she was getting a little tired (600+ frames over 11 sets); most of it she was great at, but the gun set just seemed a bit awkward for some reason.

[jeeperman]

Well she did fantastic and I doubt I would last 50 shots.

[DTruex]

Very nice composition and lighting. The skin tone is very good and the texture is soft. I like it.