I shot this with a single light (Godox AD600 Pro) with a 32" softbox and a grid with just a plain white backdrop. Nothing too fancy here, but I lowered the power to add a little gray in the backdrop instead of it being pure white. The light was positioned camera left and above the models head in the classic Rembrandt setup if she were facing forward.
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6 Comments
For me it looks like the skin is a bit overdone
I was going for a slight painterly look based on her outfit, not 100% true to life. She also had great skin and knows how to do her makeup, but I did push the dodge and burn higher than I normally do.
Overdone in what way?
Has zero texture.
Yep, I wonder what the trend is these days. For decades, every fashion model in Vogue had to have flawless airbrushed skin. Maybe it's more natural skin now, typical of the girl next door, but I suppose there's a lot of latitude for expectations in that regard. I do know that portrait photography is incredibly challenging to satisfy the client. I haven't done a ton of it, but men always seem to want you to make them look more trustworthy and intelligent, while women always want you to make them look younger.
My thoughts on this photo, for what they're worth:
While the hands and fingers in your blue/green light picture are the compelling feature of that woman, the hands and fingers are the weakest part of this portrait. The degree of red color saturation, the emphasis on the forefinger of her left hand, and not-so-glamorous condition of her fingernails are a bit of a drag on an otherwise glamorous portrait. For a young lady, I think the skin texture is fine. The only other thing that sort of jumps out to me is the blue in the whites of her eyes. That would be an easy fix, though.
I love how the light sculpts the face softly. It looks like the arm is a bit brighter than the face, I'm not loving the hands at the neck. But the back is beautiful and mysterious.