Adding a routine check: skin shadows for fat deposition, creases and smile lines.
Thank you Asher!
You're right.. I'll fix that wavy shadow tonight...
Other than that, I *love* my new 5D2 + 50/1.4 assembly ;-)
Thanks Nikolai for being open to ideas. Some guys just say thanks but really don't care. The fact that you use this feedback encourages one to invest the time to study submitted pictures.
Everyone one has some degree of skin folding and creases as well as slight differences in fat deposition. All these normal physical attributes call attention to themselves in oblique or hard light. The large the light source and close it is to the skin, the less these differences in contour will be drawn in the recorded image. That we all know, of course.
So, one should get into a routine to
look for this. We already have routines like white balance, white and black points, curves and so forth. This check for skin aberrations should be added to the list. In this case, I'd consider softening the smile crease lines from the inner edge of the eyes and the outer corner of the nose as the lighting has accentuated them. If one looks carefully, one can see minor modulations in the surface of the thighs that can be similarly corrected. In doing so, the picture really does get improved as these
very minor distractions are removed and she is even more vivacious.
Thanks again for sharing. It's great to have followed your work with models over the past several years. I have seen your improvement with each shoot and now they are impressive. Of course, your models have improved, but also the integration of the pose with the lighting. I look forward to seeing more and also further boiling down your ideas to what is simple.
asher