#4 is my favorite by far, my only critique would be to rotate slightly counter-clockwise to straighten the ladder. The pose is a bit stiff, but appropriate given the setting and the fact that she's holding herself up.
1-3 all have a strong horizontal line cutting your models in half at the waist. However, it works as a leading line in #1 and I like it. After a second viewing, I actually like #1 just as much as #4.
The weakest image in this set I think is #3. The wall is slightly tilted, the bright splash of sun on the right draws the focus away from the model, and the ambient is a bit underexposed, leaving the harsh shadow around her hips on the wall.
Also, how far away is your BD from your models? I ask because your catchlights seem rather small. A good rule of thumb is to keep them about 2x their diameter from the model's face. In other words, you would place a 22" dish about 2 feet from the model. It's very close, often just inches out of your frame, but the true BD "effect" is best seen at this distance. Another nifty technique is to "feather" the light, so that only the edge of the beam of light hits the model. This makes for some very cool shadow-highlight transitions.
thanks Jon. I actually have the beauty dish quite aways, away. On the first shot with the sporty girl, I do have it right out of the frame up close an personal. I liked the impact of light it gave. for the rest of the shots, the model was not the focus i had to shoot the clothing more then anything as its for the designer of those clothes. I agree with you on the best beauty dish shots are up close as stated...but for this shoot i did not feel like putting together my octobox haha. Its much easier to lug my beauty dish around for on location work. yeah I'm not so much into image three the more i look at it...at first I thought her expression was kind of edgy and I liked that.
my dislike with beauty dishes is the donut shape in the eyes. I hear there is a semi transparent circle I can get from pro foto that fits on the alien bee beauty dish...
