dressing up for Audrey Hepburn (back)

Lit by an on-camera bounced flash with Demb Mega Flip-it! +Diffuser -- does this almost reporter-style lighting do a goodenough job here?

Please view Large.

Wonderful portrait, although doesn't look like Audry Hepburn! The outfit does!

PDE

That's right, Pierre: she's not Audrey's look-alike.  She was going to a theme party and chose to dress up as her (and I'd say it was a good choice as the "costume" -- including the hairdo and the way she carries herself -- suited her ;)

The lighting seems OK to me. there are a few little things here: the face is only seen in the mirror, and there it is nicely lit. But you focussed on the back of the head, for no good reason I can see. The way the head connects with the painting on the left is not perfect. For the me real head and mirror image are a bit to far apart, which can be helped by either moving the model slightly, or moving the camera to the left a little.

Hi Arjen, the shot was only half-posed, with the other half being "reporter" style on two accounts, i.e.:

• while I did ask her to look at me in the mirror, there was no time for proper posing, so I was snapping away as she was getting ready; and
• it was shot "on-location" = in somebody's bathroom, so while I noticed all the clutter, there was only so much I could do to eliminate it (e.g., I couldn't rearrange the decor and room to move around was restricted).

I've cloned out most -- see the random place = random clutter photo above to compare the edited picture with the original state -- but the painting on the left proved too difficult for my retouching skills (I did try but did too poor a job of it).

As for the distance between the model and her reflection, I've got to say I like it the way it is because, IMO, this spacial separation creates some interesting dynamics: you trace the model's line of vision to see what she is looking at, only to discover that she's looking back at you... Believe that wouldn't have been the case had the two been closer together.  BTW, moving the camera to the left, effectively more behind the model's back, would have altered the angle from which I captured her, and seeing her eyelashes is critical to leading viewers' eyes.  This effect is more pronounced when viewed Large.

As for having the back of the model in sharp focus and the reflection of her face out-of-focus, again, I consider it more intriguing -- as well as instrumental in creating the aforementioned dynamics (!) -- but I did take another shot with "reversed" focus, so please feel free to compare the effect.  To me, the other version is more predictable, and since it shows what you'd expect to see, it also makes less of an impact.

Thank you for taking your time to critique my work.  I'm wondering whether me presenting my perspective has changed yours in any way (?)

Dress is VERY Audrey, wearer has beautiful shoulders! I might like the reflection in focus myself, but I definitely like it without the painting on left. I was a bit sloppy, but it can be done, especially with a larger file.

Cheers for encouraging me, Les!

Here's the reflection in focus take. 
I prefer model's intent/enquiring look in the out-of-focus version over the in-focus smile.

So I've had another go at retouching; it looks pretty good on a downsized picture (but even there there is a discernible edge softness where I put the cloning tool to it :)  The close-up of the result inserted above.

Now, instead of re-posting this image, I've morphed it with the other one, thus creating extended DoF; check it out:

• Audrey twins (think I've managed to make it look as if there were two people standing rather than one with her reflection ;)
• The Magic Mirror (I've retained the actual mirror in this one)