I just got a small Lastolite 38x38cm softbox for my flash this weekend and this shot was part of trying it out. My girlfriend did a patient job of modeling for me while I moved the light to and forth. I had a Canon 580 at low power on the camera to trigger the my Sigma 500 super witch I had setup as optical slave the main flash for the softbox. The BW conversion was done in Rawshooter but fine tweaking in photoshop. Mostly minirature tweaks using curves and USM.
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To go over the technical bits first:
Very good picture. Very nice lighting - the softbox is obviously working well. I think the black and white works very well, and the dead space on the right does seem to balance the picture nicely. The eyes are beautifully brought out too. So that's all good. Slightly noisy, but I assume that's intentional - I don't really like the portraits with plastic skin Neat Imaged to death.
As for the subject matter, the picture is actually very interesting. I thought about it, and my interpretation would be as follows:
I would say that the image definitely captures an element of pop culture. Those same magazine covers that are telling us girls should be thin are also telling us that they should be perfectly shaved. Which interestingly doesn't necessarily hold across times and cultures, but it seems to be a strong current western phenomenon, in fact so strong that any hint of inappropriate body hair causes revulsion (see comments for examples).
I think the photo captures and highlights this phenomenon - my first reaction was to look away from the armpit, and it really took me a while to be able to look at the photo without looking away. At the same time, the photo seems to say "In your face" to that aspect of pop culture - it's capturing something that we've been taught should be hidden and done in private, whereas the lady in the picture seems happy to show it to the general public.
The number of people going "aggh" should be a sign you've stumbled across a genuine social taboo. Well done. Be proud.
And hope you have lots of fun with the new softbox :)
Thank you for making her eyes so lovely - It draws me away from the obvious. It's tecnically very good and was quite appealing until I left the eyes...
Can't - look - away.
Wow. You definitely captivated the point here. Not sure enough about pop culture to know that this fits, but extra points anyway for keeping me on this longer than most.
Good shot (sort of)
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