Russ, Thank you for your time and comments. Ambient light was most certainly bleeding into the frame. I'm limited to where and when I can shoot - hoping for an overcast day. I'll try stopping down and going to one light, and changing the head tilt. The expression is something I struggle with, as I cannot see what I look like.
Thanks again for the time you put into this critique.

Bill

Here is a reshoot with a neutral background.
D800 Nikon with 85mm prime. Shot in front of grey seamless paper I pre focused on a mannequin, then aligned myself on the same plane for the shot. I'm a bit on the heavy side so I chose short light and shot slightly high - lean in - look up - stretch that double chin out...
1/200 sec f/5.6 ISO 100

Lighting: Main light - 45 degrees camera left a PC Buff Einstein with a 22" beauty dish metered at f/5.0 approximately 3 feet from the subject. Fill Light - PC Buff Einstein with a 5' octobox just slightly camera right (just far enough to shoot past it) metered at f/2.2. Background light was a Neewer C180 snooted and metered at f/2.0 placed roughly next to the main.

There was a fair amount of ambient light in the room as well.

C & C welcome

(Download)

Love it - I would guess this one will be treasured.

So true. So much to learn - So many things to think about before the shutter is pressed - then the post... It seems almost overwhelming at first but if we then look back at our progress through practice and critique we move forward. Without the critiquing process we learn nothing.

The catchlight in here eyes says natural light but the nose shadow is near perfect and there is a fairly hard shadow cast by the apron on her sleeve. I may have added a little more fill light to soften up the shadows but that's an artistic choice.

Was this all natural or strobe supplemented?.

Unique Photo in Fairfield NJ has free shipping on big ticket items. As far as I know they do not have a store in NY so there should not be any tax either. Their prices are in line with Adorama and B&H.

http://www.uniquephoto.com/

Don't know about CC - but in CS-6 you can use File . Revert to undo all your changes and restore your original. You should also be able to do this through your 'History' box - pick a point in the current session to go back to. I'm not sure if this function has a limit on how many actions it will store.

lol - Don't miss it one bit :thumbup:

Thanks Jon - appreciate your input. It's tough to critically evaluate your pose and deportment in a 'selfie', but now knowing what to look for I'll be conscious of it.

That really stands out for me now. The neutral background works really well, and I can see what you mean by competing tones. Thank You!

I would say that a photo has 'Pop' when your eye is instantly drawn to the subject even with just a casual glance.

The lighting looks great. Without your description you would never know that speedlights were used rather than studio strobes. I agree with Jon on the hand.

Thanks Russ! I enjoyed every word. This post is a great learning tool, especially with the included pictures of the setup.

Bill

Thank you for the input. I'll try and re-shoot this tomorrow morning incorporating those points.

I'm lousy matching colors to skin tones - any suggestions? There's always black of course, and I have white paper and a sand colored roll. If you think it should be something different please don't be constrained by what I presently have - Paper is cheap.

This was the best overall portrait of perhaps 40 shots that were taken in this session.

Lighting - Two P. C. Buff Einstein monolights. 22" Beauty dish 45 degrees camera left about 3 feet from the subject as the main light, and a 5' octobox just slightly camera right about 4 feet away for fill. Main metered at f/4, fill at f/1.8. The Main light is placed a bit lower than conventional but with it higher I had too much reflection off the top of the head and too much shadow from the brow cast on the top portion of the eyes. The lights were triggered with one PC cord to the fill and the main was fired by flash sensor. The camera was triggered by Pocket Wizards.

The backdrop (Savage Seamless Crimson 53 inch) was 4 feet behind me. I would have liked more distance to make it darker but the constraints of the room were against it.