Not bad; did you do some background brightening in post by any chance?
[and various other commenters] Yes, I didn't do a good enough job on background lighting. One reflected umbrella (off center at that, it turned out). Probably could use two shoot throughs at least instead. Had to brighten, and it messed up the edges of her hair etc.
#3 - Something about the angle makes her face look wider than the others. It's still a nice image, though.
I agree, but can't figure out why... It's more angled left than the chin rested photo, AND is short lit. AND not angled back, all of which should make it look horizontally thinner, but it doesn't. Any insights would be helpful.
Suggested Caucasian: 227, 176, 149/10, 33, 40, 0
Interesting. Will give those a spin.
The images seem flat and leave very little visual impact.
Did you shoot raw or jpeg?
RAW. What do you mean by "flat?"
Tonal range? She wanted it to be all very bright, so it intentionally has a short range / close to 1:1 ratio.
Perspective? I was only like 10 feet away.
Second John and Tyler here. I will add that the camera angles seem dubious to me.
Yes. She was concerned about (in reality very slight and easy to post process) neck folds, so I was trying to do some stuff to either hide that (with an arm) or use a higher angle to stretch the neck more, to make her feel happier and more comfortable looking in the moment.
A high light would have been another option, to cast the neck in shadow, while still having a flat angle, but I couldn't get it to work. I think due to the lack of a good boom arm for my softbox.
Anyway yeah, I would have preferred more straight on angles (I like the angles personally, but they were a deviation from the requested "mood" not that I think she cared/noticed). This seems most easily fixed by just having more experience making models feel good about themselves and whatever insecurities. I imagine it's a matter of practice, although if you have tips, then send them my way!
Thanks for all the other comments too, everyone!