I’m proud of this photo.  Not because it’s beautiful–though it is–but because, from a technical perspective, it is one of the hardest photos I’ve ever shot.

Working with Arcade Jewelers, an antique jewelry company, we wanted to showcase this gorgeous pearl necklace and set of earrings on a model without having her face distract from the overall image.  (When shooting any fashion/commercial images with a model, recognizable facial features mean that viewers will inevitably be drawn to the model’s eyes first… which, when you’re promoting a necklace, you don’t want).

So we put model Laura Kay’s face in shadows.

We instantly ran into trouble with this because the shadows on her face quickly blended in with the shadows behind her.  Several lighting set ups later, we set up a light behind Laura so that her profile would be visible, even if her face wouldn’t.  Laura couldn’t move when we were shooting–one inch one way or the other would allow some light into the photo that we didn’t want–and, fortunately for her, we got this image soon thereafter.