Hi Chris. I looked at the image before reading far enough to see your comments about the catchlights, and i have to say that i noticed the lack of them right away, but only in the sense that i was thinking " her eyes look so flat". i'm not at all a "portrait" photog so i don't have some built-in rule about catchlights. i just think that it's obvious from the strength of the light striking her face ( as well as the reflections on that mic), that there should be some reflections on her eyes. the deal is, that it makes them look dry when we know they're not. couldn't you have reduced the catchlights in size without losing them altogether? i like the look (sans makeup), a lot. if you are going for a "hot highlight" look, it's gonna be hard to have smooth skin tone gradations though ( from the hot spot to a mid tone), without using makeup to even out the skin values. without the makeup, i think a softer, more diffused lighting scheme would work much better.(posted 8444 days ago)i agree the mic is distracting. it's sharp, high contrast grabs my attention.
the studio co-op sounds great. i look forward to seeing more of your shots from there!