Ashley: Shakes

Allow me to explain the title.

Ashley is posing in one of the many corners outside of the house. We have wood shakes painted off-white (perhaps they were once white) for siding and the supposed-creative in me decided to use it as background.

Does it work? I suppose it does, it's simple. The other cool thing about it is the fact that it's a corner so I guess it's a tribute to Irving Penn who did corner shots better than anyone else. It also casts a warmer color temperature back on the skin given that the light comes from a silver reflector from back upper left. This is one of the only corners around the house that allows me to reflect light into it adequately. It's the first time that I've ever shot here and it may at some point be a staple of my shooting routine. I don't know, it's too early to tell. I am looking around the backyard for fences, walls, and other solid backgrounds though...

Anything else special about this shot?

No gradient map other than the typical B&W gradient map luminosity blended at 16%. Just needed a little more contrast. Whereas the previous image of Ashley required a tone down of contrast, this one needed just a touch more. I used levels, curves and the gradient map to achieve this.

I suppose the overarching difference in this is not particular to this picture alone but the direction of my images overall. I've been shooting more body and a lot less face. As such the retouching focuses heavily now on the body, making sure the lines are "true to form" whatever the hell that means, making sure shadows and highlights appear in the right places to provide depth and contrast. Having come from retouching mostly beauty, I find it somewhat odd that I can move through the body so much quicker while placing somewhat less emphasis on the face. That said, I took special care that the facial retouch was not neglected this time around as I might have "forgotten" to touch certain elements on the previous two iterations of Ashley...

Camera: D3/24-70mm f/2.8G @48mm, 1/320th, f/7.1, ISO200

Strobist: Silver reflector from camera back upper left.

Model/makeup/wardrobe: Ashely Twomey