Neglected Beauty

I've long neglected my beauty work. I have condensed what I do with beauty into less and less steps. So much so that I've pretty much moved away from most beauty work. I do what I consider "headshots". Realistic. To-the-point. Great representations of the actual person.

But that's not beauty.

Here's a great example:

Kristen from PhotoGenics. H3DII-31/HC-210mm. 1/500th f/11 ISO200.

For all you know, that's exactly how this image came out of the box. Totally believable. Highlights and shadows intact. Simple B&W conversion.

Of course, that isn't true. But it could be true.

Here's what I consider the traditional beauty image:

Anneliese from Next. H3DII-31/HC-210mm. 1/500th f/9.5 ISO100.

Lots of desaturation in skin-tones. Unreal highlights and shadows. Selective saturation of red/purples. That being said, my "version" of beauty in this example isn't particularly extreme. I suppose Anneliese could have looked like that out of the box. I didn't really push the highlights and shadows that hard. I suppose I'm still portraying a very possible/real image.

I might try my hand at more traditional beauty going forward. But with the amount of time I spent on this image, it's so hard to justify the returns.