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Outstanding!

Thank you Michael ... this is the fire escape staircase of the hotel, there was no smoking allowed in the rooms ..... . : -)

Great picture ,very well captured .

Beautiful work, great shadows.

John.  I agree with Peter that this is a departure for you but I think it is really cool.  I like the noir mood created by the lighting and situation.  I would be tempted to crop out the window.  I don't think it brings much to the image and is a bit distracting to me.  I think it might enhance the mood, highlight the model better, and put more focus on the left hand side of the image, which is really great (especially the shadow).  Just a humble suggestion.  All the best.  Dana...

Marvelous!!Excellent work!!

Cheers!!

Thank you for your visit friends. Dana, I certainly appreciate your comment also, thank you. 

Very unusual for you, John! I mean no umbrellas and mighty flash lighting in fancy environment! I always say that the best pictures (photos) are those made by the window in daylight! Bravo, my friend!

Best regards

PDE

Pierre my friend,  a large percentage of my work is indeed taken in natural lighting. I do not use an umbrella or any mighty lighting other than a flash attached to my camera,  but I appreciate your comment, thank you.

Beautiful tones and excellent use of lighting. Congrats.

John, you are a professional and shoot on available light you say?! But all your pictures all equally exposed and sharp and technically perfect! And there are shadows, mild shadows, but shadows and you don't achieve that with on camera flash unless there is some mighty light other than the flash on the camera!

PDE

Haha, I am just an amateur Pierre, this is my hobby and it has been a mental  and physical source of escape from a ten to twelve hour-a-day office life (and sometimes considerably more)  most of my adult existence

 -  an eighteen year university career before moving to industry (my area of expertise is not very far removed from your own, as I have written to you in the past).  

You flatter me highly when you imply that my photos without exception are anything but point and shoot images taken with daylight or a flash attached to a hand held camera!

I have often reminisced in these pages on how the effectiveness of  "flash on camera" is sometimes underestimated. By bouncing the light off the wall or ceiling, one softens the output and reproduces the softness of natural light, while still retaining some of the single-source direction of output (hence the soft shadows you refer to). It just takes a little practice and lots and lots of trial and error. 

 There is no way of knowing beforehand what flash will produce, though with a digital screen on the camera it is now much easier than it was when I first started.  What I show you are some of the photos that are  more or less acceptable, ha, you should see some of the others!

.. and yes, the "fancy environment" is most often my home (more rarely that of a friend), and the only umbrella we have here is for the rain!   Oof, I don't think I have ever before spoken so much about myself  ..... : -).

Best wishes to you my friend, John

John, seems like this natural-light-only image is a change of pace and style for you, and I quite like it!  Of course a reflector would have thrown a little more light back onto her face, but perhaps this is the way you envisioned it to be... somewhat mysterious and secretive.

I like the raw and earthy feel to this image, made even more so by the use of B&W and the environ.  Love the use of a cigarette to add to this sultry backstage image!  Bravo!