just throwing one out there...

c&c welcome.

Different and effective. The background has been selected well and very carefully presented. The only thing I'm not happy about is the table. It's light and distracting and I'm not sure its positioning is optimum.

In an ideal world I would ditch the table and if at all possible include a black cat in that space. That could be quite surreal.

I agree fully with John re the background and presentation, leading to effectiveness. And it is wonderfully different, especially through your choice of lighting.

I'm not as opposed as John to the table, although it would certainly be interesting to see a black cat included - either in lieu, or on top, of the table?

I like this - excellent work.

C&C
Agree with Jon on the table, looks out of place.
Focus - the satanic mask and settee seem more in focus than the girl. Looks to me like either focus has been missed or your lense/camera combination is back focusing.

Being picky: I'd want a faster shutter speed and a larger fire, as it is it feels like it was taken at 1/50 or so.

What's the shadow on the back wall?

Like the idea, though. Was the model happy?

Bret

closer to a full second.... small aperture and gas fire.... the long exposure was to get the fire to register and balance with the flash..... the shadow is off a chandelier from the ceiling...

This is the Famous Fort Garry Hotel, in Winnipeg. I like the cat idea, will burn in the table a bit while I'm at it.

Lighting consisted of three sources:

a little bluish daylight leaking in from the edges of some very large windows with heavy drapes... from the (viewers)right. this added some color to the fill light and allowed the fire to register.

a little warm fill from the incandescent lights which the hotel staff were kind enough to dim right down until it was almost dark.

one 250 watt gridded gelled strobe behind the model, facing the mantle.

one 250 watt strobe, shoot through umbrella providing both main and fill for the model, again to the right of the camera near the windows.. a full length silver reflector on the camera left to pick up detail in the black dress...

Then there is a 500 watt strobe with narrow reflector outside the room in another room shooting through the doors into the room fired with a radio slave.

The model worked hard, we lost a few shots to motion blur...

We had a half hour to set up and shoot....
pentax k10 and 16-45

with that timescale and that lighting: very nicely done!

Bret

Very unusual and surreal. Nice to see something so carefully staged and well executed. Mixed lighting is hard to get right and render convincingly.

Don, does the 16-45 make a good partner for the K10? Not that I suffer from LBA or anything (!) but I'm interested in squeezing the best out of that great sensor. I'm more than happy with the Mk1 kit lens, but an (in old money) 24mm equivalent wide angle would be very tempting...

Well, the 16-45 and k10 work a little too well for me... I'd like to go shopping for more glass, but Gerri keeps saying "There is nothing wrong with the photos you're getting...." so what can you do?

between the 16-45, the 10-17 fisheye, the 50 1.4 and 100 mm macro, I manage quite well.

I did just get the 35 2.4 and it is surprisingly good as well.

The trick is to simply learn each lenses abilities and use each where it performs best.

With faster shutter speeds I might have opted to try the 50 1.4 and gotten a little sharper detail in the eyelashes for example, but the wide angle perspective (and need to move furniture around to get a better camera position) works, she isn't very tall and to give her prominence in the frame, the wide angle was best choice.

Very nice shot indeed. Mi only constructive critique is that I'd crop 20% of the bottom and about 5% off the top

I really like it. I would like it more without furniture and the fire which doesn't look real.