A wet-plate studio portrait of Maya.

Timeless beauty, and my sense is that the image here pales in comparison to seeing the actual piece it in person. Nice work.

Lovely image! I wonder about those dual reflections in her eyes.... I think I would prefer just one, but I wonder what the general consensus is about catchlights? I find the size, shape and location of these two in her eyes distracting. Are they any concern to you Gary? Or is it considered a common insignificant by-product? Maybe it's their close proximity to her shiny nose ring that makes them more noticeable to me...

The dual reflections in the subjects' eyes do not bother me and without the large reflector that creates them the quality of the lighting in this image would be very different and less successful.

wonderful

Sharp in all the right ways. Can you tell us more about the lighting? Did you use a strobe? If so, how powerful? Thanks!

The plate size is 6.5 x 8.5 inches - whole plate. The white beauty dish is 27 inches in diameter and about 30 inches from the subject hanging on a boom arm. There is a silver reflector placed below the subject to fill the shadow under the subject's chin. The Petzval 9 inch lens lens is about f5, shot wide open. I am using a fast collodion from UV Photographics. I am using a homemade head brace to make sure the subject does not move out of the plane of focus. The flash system is a Speedotron 4800 watt second unit with all the power going to one head. I hope this helps.

Maya has made you quite popular, Gary!

Thanks for the details. I have several years experience with wet plat but I've never tried using artificial light. Cheers!

bvy said:

Maya has made you quite popular, Gary!

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Maya is an extraordinary subject to photograph and patient beyond belief with the Wet-plate process.