Elizabeth Waite, the “High-Ratio” Model

Meet Elizabeth. She’s an up-and-coming commercial model, and I had the pleasure of shooting her for a second time during my last trip to New York. Elizabeth is what I call a “high-ratio” model: whenever we shoot, 90% of her images look amazing. Very few models can boast that kind of accomplishment.

Elizabeth is naturally gorgeous with flawless, creamy skin and a mega-watt smile. With each click of the shutter, she gives me slight variations in her poses and subtly angles her face and alters her expression. This provides a fascinating shoot for the photographer and offers dozens of choices in the editing process. Whenever I shoot Elizabeth, I tell her, “Yeah, good luck picking your favorite–they’re all gorgeous.” Luckily, I had the help of Anthony Pichette, a kick-ass casting director in New York. I narrowed down the selects as best I could (starred anything that looked good, then went over those and applied two stars to the ones that stood out from that bunch and so forth), and Anthony picked the top one or two.

Here, we got the pictures down to these two. See how hard it is to pick a favorite? Sometimes it boils down to a flip of a coin.

Photographer: Amy Dunn
Makeup artist: Alice An for Candifiend Studios

Brooklyn, NY 2009

Gear: Canon 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM Lens, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM

Posted by amydunn on Sunday, December 6, 2009, at 12:01 pm. Filed under Model Tips, Photo Shoots. Tagged headshot, model, portrait, pretty, smile, teeth. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. You can post a comment or trackback from your blog.

4 Comments

Tony Dias | December 6, 2009 at 8:36 pm | Permalink

I see. If I had to pick I would say the first top pick is more arresting.

Again, you make me wish I stayed in the visual arts. I am way too chicken to go back into it (unless I did not have to worry about making a living at it.) Hell, I am so old and old school I remember mixing Dektol by the gallon, Back in the day.

I stll think of photography as something concerning lght and chemistry, not light and Photoshop.

But in any event, I love what you are doing. I am hoping for the day to say yea, I knew Amy when she was still coming up and now look where she has got herself!
petetsai | December 6, 2009 at 9:33 pm | Permalink

#1 for me for sure. The thin DoF draws you to her face and eyes. The eyes have better catch lights. The green wall works better and contrasts her hair nicely. I also feel the angle of the shot is more flattering. Super shot Amy! As always a great crop too!
Michael D. Ward | December 6, 2009 at 11:03 pm | Permalink

Both are very nice! The color, her eyes and the DOF in the first make it my pick but it is a tough call. Beautiful shots as always Amy.
amydunn | December 8, 2009 at 6:28 pm | Permalink

I’m a fan of color myself, so yes, my vote goes to #1 as well! Thanks for the input, my friends.