First try at boudoir

[AristonPhotog]

Photo of my lovely wife who agreed to help me with trying out some different lighting setups. In this shot I had an AB800 as the main light set at 1/8th power. The rim light is bare SB-800 set to 1/32nd power. It looks like the lighting ratios are ok, but I'm wondering if the bare SB-800 is too much.

EXIF:
Exposure: 1/250s
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 160

[willbrawn]

not really sure how this is a boudoir first off. Maybe there is more to the outfit that we are not seeing. The lighting looks ok from the right, her face is to dark and her entire figure is lost in the shadows. The point of "boudoir is to show a womans figure, make her look appealing, sexy, elegant. I dont feel this image does your wife justice.

[AristonPhotog]

Originally Posted by willbrawn

not really sure how this is a boudoir first off. Maybe there is more to the outfit that we are not seeing. The lighting looks ok from the right, her face is to dark and her entire figure is lost in the shadows. The point of "boudoir is to show a womans figure, make her look appealing, sexy, elegant. I dont feel this image does your wife justice.

Ok, so now that you've indicated what I did wrong...do you have suggestions on what do to make it better?

[ttosifa]

I'm not a fan of the hard lighting on her face, but that's a matter of taste.

Your wife is apparently wearing something black. Black, when properly exposed, is black. You can't see the form of something that is pure black and is properly exposed. So you can't see your wife's form.

So, you need highlights. In that regard, I don't think your SB-800 is nearly enough. By having it create highlights all down the right side of her body, you'll be able to see her form. I think you also need a rim light on her left side to create even more highlights. I bet it will look great.

Think about softening that main light a bit though. If you want fall off, get a beauty dish in very close or something...

[Trader]

I agree with all the comments that have been made so far. If you had some seperation between your subject and the background it would improve the shot considerably. Even if you added another light source focused on the background that should help.

Edit: Another thing I find distracting is your choice of logo on the bottom right. It may work well in other photos but on a predominately dark photo it is very out of place.