Brenda's lovely face

[texxter]

I had a great time this morning working with this wonderfully pretty and smart young lady, Brenda. We started doing very natural portraits with no makeup on her, went thru some fitness shots, did some cute poses, and ended up with a more low key serious portraits and headshots. Amazing how light can change a person!

I changed light quite a few times, so I'll try to describe the lighting setup the best I remember them.

Comments and feedback welcome! Images are intented to be used for stock purposes.

#1. Natural. Brenda came with no make up and we started like that - one 5 ft octabox to camera right as key light, and a 4x8 white foam core board to camera left as fill. Background lit separately with two umbrellas.



#2. Fitness. I think it's the same setup as above. Here she applied some light makeup and changed into workout clothes. I like the natural, carefree smile and epxression here.



#3 Yoga. The same Photoflex octabox to camera right positioned to give me Rembrandt light, and the 4x8 board is now black, pretty close to her, to give me negative fill and high contrast for a more interesting, window-light like effect. She's got baby oil on her shoulders and chest and water on the shirt to simulate sweat from exercising. This photo is straight out of the camera.



#4 Fitness. Same set up as above for this lovely and intense closeup. I love the makeup she used, very natural and nearly invisible.



#5 Fun. Pretty much the same setup, one light and negative fill.



#6 Headshot. Used the same 5ft octabox right above her and a silver umbrella pointing up from below as fill for a "clamshell" setup. I removed the double catchlights for a less busy look. Background lights turned off.



#7 Playful. The same octabox with the background lights turned off, and positioned low to get some light under the hat. Silver reflector under her chin as fill. I am not too crazy about this images, but it's interesting to see the evolution from the first one, natural, no makeup, to this "grown up" one. As I look at this, I think it would have looked better without the chain strap, dunno.

[danchez]

#6 is spectacular Paco.

[athompson]

Paco: as usual excellent images and very instructive. Thank you. -ANDY

[Redneck]

Very nice variety. I love the ones with more contrast, like #4, 6 and 7. Great work and she really fills the roles.

[texxter]

Thank you much for the comments! Brenda was good to work with.

[Some Idiot]

#6 is awesome, #7 the eye creeps me out for some reason

[bryanlindsey]

1 and 6 are killer IMHO. In #1, why not fix the blemishes on her cheek?

[texxter]

Rob, Bryan, thank you.

We made a whole series, at her request, with no makeup and no postprocessing for an agency she's interviewing with. I guess agencies want to see the real face these days of digital fakery.

[toverman]

Great stuff. I agree with Rob on the last one ... her eye looks unnatural, maybe it's the light/reflection at the bottom. Love No. 6, though.

[texxter]

Thanks Todd, the last one reminds me of The Clockwork Orage posters

Here is one more I edited today, in the fitness tradition, but with a bit of light and background punched in. I would have liked for her right ear to not show at all, and I may have a variation where it's not visible, but I picked this one.

Thanks

[49884]

Nice work Paco! Thanks for the insight. Tell me about the shadows in no. 5 are they added in post?

[texxter]

The shadows were part of the capture, not added later.

Thanks!

[peeker]

As usual Paco... great work. One of these days, we will have to get together, shoot and share.

[DoublyDan]

Great Images PACO!

I don't think its the eye in the 7th one, perhaps the relative closeness of the hair to the eye, otherwise I like that one a lot.

I really like the last one. She looks like she is sweating and her body is opening up to the camera, which accentuates her nice waist line. Also, the hot spot behind her make her come off the screen!

[toverman]

Daniel, opinions are in the eye of the beholder of the eye. For me, it IS the eye. Creepy! But the rest make up for it.