glamour/pinup - face & figure Painted on Bikini 1

Outlined in string, painted with latex body paint. We went out to a public

beach - as long as we were some distance from people they did not notice.

Passers-by were startled because the latex is like a second skin.

atypical beachwear.

Pehaps a reflector to the model's left would have helped smooth out the light on her face.

reply to Steve,

Why would that be important for this image?

jm

haha, very cool! I didnt even know that was latex from the thumbnail I seen! I was confused about why it was under nudes but now that I took a look I SEEEE! haha Very cool!

I thought that the reflector might help balance the sunlit and the shaded sides of the model's face.

I think of faces and expression as very important to the overall image quality.

I agree expressions are very important but you were talking about lighting ratio.  What does that have to do with expression?

Jerry

there's an element of sun and shadow on the model's face. I can only draw a baseball analogy, wherein the mound is in sunshine and the plate in shadows. It is more difficult to see the ball when half its travel is in sun and half in shadow. In this instance it sems to me that the mixture of sun and shadow detracts from, rather than enhances the image.

The image is not about her face.  You are making assumptions like - if this is a portrait then it should follow certain rules.  This is not a portrait.  This is a picture in bright late afternoon sunlight meant to show a rather strange type of swimsuit. It is meant to illustrate the bathing suit idea for photographers.  It is not meant to be a catalog illustration.  You just want to make a very narrow definition about what is the proper thing and then quote rules about it.  John Peri loves to quote Ansel Adams saying that there are no rules in photography.  The only rule I know is don't drop the camera.

As a matter of fact, since there was way too much wind for a reflector and no assistant to hold one, I tried with a large variety of flash fill, then decided to double process one of them so as to get just the degree of highlight to shadow as I got here.  I rejected 6 other combinations as not as effective. Pictures of action in bright sunlight don't look good with a 3:1 lighting ratio.  

It is exactly what I wanted to get.  Now, as an observer you can say you think I made the wrong choice, or that you don't like the result, but don't suggest techniques for me to use to have made it better.

jm

Interesting. You've done a lot of work to get the result you want.

If it was easy, we'd all do it too. You'll likely find as many opinions as there are viewers.  Keep doing what you are doing, it's much better than most.

 I seem to enjoy the portrait style, where the model's expressions really put the image over the top. That's a reason I like John Peri's work so often. The personal relationship is something he seems to be a master at portraying.

Havig your own style is what seperates one from the pack.