You didn't ask for c&c but I'm going to offer some just because No. 1 could have really been sensational with one small change. THe light camera left is low to the ground so you can easily see the falloff of the light on the sand. At her knees, the light is perfect. It's also very good going toward the light for the rest of the frame. Immediately after her knees, you can see the light falling off. By the time it reaches her face, it's a stop or possibly even a stop and a half underexposed. If the light was positioned so the light hit her face perfectly and the fall off took place behind her, the rest of her would have been well exposed and this shot would have been even more beautiful than it already is. Getting the light up higher would have given you a better shadow on the nose, like what you got on No. 2.
Overall, beautiful shots. Just thought I'd share what I saw with the light falloff.
I like number one very much. I can't comment on light, don't know enough. But to my eye, the pose and the composition are near perfect. The dress, the hair, wonderful.
Let me offer one other comment on the lighting in this series. One of the many things I've learned from Joe McNally is that there needs to be "logic" to the light. Light that doesn't compete with the direction of the ambient light has a logic to it. Alternatively, light that is specifically placed to emphasize something, regardless of ambient, has a different logic to it. In this series, the second and especially the third image demonstrate the first kind of logic. Although the setting sun is off to the west, there's enough softness and lower shadow intensity to make the lighting in these two frames complementary to the ambient. The first, however, has a definite directionality to the light, and it competes with the sun, which is in the frame. Not a bad shot (given Ron's observations), but the other two work much better for me.
Steve there is a little story to the 1st shot that I wont get into here. But the fact is you and Ron are both 100 percent correct and I am aware of this. BTW who is this numb nuts guy you talk about?
