Hi Greg, The primary reason for the case of the blinks from your subject, is the flash. She is blinking just when the flash is going off. Often the photographer gives away the timing of the shot by saying something like "one - two - three " etc. To defeat the blinks have the subject close their eyes until you say and then open milliseconds before you trip the shutter. Also this women is in drastic need of several items, first is professional make-up. Applied by a pro w/ PHOTO experience you will never know that it is there, and it should be clean, straight and match her skin tone. This does two things first it evens out the overall color of the skin. Most peoples skin has a variety of color from the neck up due to exposure to the sun, rosacia <sp> etc. A good powder will give the skin a lack of reflectance. As it is her face looks greasy. Second it gives the appearance of smoother skin. Doing it in post production (i.e. PS) is crap. IF you are going to do an environmental portrait then making the client look their best requires this. Third, she really needs the softest lighting possible, direct or even reflected sunlight is not a good idea. Diffused sunlight through a panel or light white fabric would work. Some studio strobes are the best answer, if you are not familiar with them then a portrait class is needed. For portraits I always use a light source at least 100x the size of the subject. usually very large umbrellas or softboxes. In sandy1 the strobe light from camera left is way too hot and skips across the surface of her face from too steep an angle. It ends up causing way too many deep shadows on the laugh lines coming from the nose to the ends of the mouth. Same with the cleft over the upper lip and under the nose, and the cleft between the eyebrows. Her nose is lit from two different directions including warm on the camera right side and cool from the left. Her nose looks huge. Again powder would help reduce the reflected light from the end of her nose. The window light from camera right is adding great color to the skin but it also draws attention directly to the laugh lines around her left eye. Not very attractive. In sandy 2 you got a little closer to usable but not quite. First her mouth is open showing a large gap between her teeth. She seemed to be speaking. The light from camera left needs to be higher in elevation by at least 3 ft. and at least two feet closer to the camera or further away from the subject. Again this will help fill in the shadows under the bottom lip and into the laugh lines that extend from the nose to the edge of the mouth. The pose has possibilities but do not let her rest her head against her hand, just barely touch. This is done anytime the hand comes near the face because the weight of the contact, it will distort the face. If you really want to know how light plays over the surface planes of the face, get a wig head and a standard hot light on a stand. Put the wig head on the table to simulate the subject. then you become the camera moving the light up, down and around the head watching how the light falls over the surfaces of the face. Then when you have played with this for about an hour add a large piece of foamcore as a reflector to use as a fill. Here are my "standard" portrait minimums for gear. 1. Always use at least 150mm w/ 35gear 2. Always keep the subject at least 6' in front of any backgrounds. 3. Always use a tripod when you can. 4. Always look at the location first to plan the shot, then go home or to your office to plan and then go shoot. 5. Take an assistant whenever possible. You should not be setting up gear and trying to prep the subject at the same time. 6. Start w/ the camera at least 1' over the head of the subject, rarely on the same vertical plane. Make them raise their head. I hope this helps, Les Baldwin
