Karen

f10 1/125sec ISO 200
focal length 58mm Auto focus

Karen and I have known each other for nearly 30 years, since we both qualified as radiographers. (We were child proteges and qualified at the age of 8, which was legal in those days!)
She has lovely hands, nails and I asked her if she would sit for me with the aim of trying to include hers hands in some pictures and to try different sitting positions. I'd asked her to bring a couple of different tops and to wear just a light foundation and lip gloss.

The set is in my room at home with the neutral blue wall (Farrow and Ball Light Blue) and black back drop. We mainly used one light (Bowens Esprit 500) set high behind camera position and a white, foam core reflector directly in front of Karen.

I'd tried to make a snoot, after chatting with Vinnie and having a look at various internet postings, with the idea of putting light separately directly onto the hands. I had high hopes because it was beautifully designed and engineered, see above. It was not successful mainly because of no internal reflection it just absorbed light (and heat) it also made the poses un natural. We had good light on the hands anyway without it, so we abandoned that idea.

I found setting up using the light meter to be a very helpful way of engaging the sitter, I give a quick explanation then give them the job of holding it. It gives them something to do, just enough distraction to initially relax. Using auto focus on the eye area worked better than my eyesight, I checked the focus and exposure in the camera monitor as I took the pics.

f10 1/125sec ISO 200
focal length 52mm Auto focus

I'm happy with the pictures we got. I may have been able to improve them with a back, light on the hair but struggle to get far enough away not to light the background. We were careful to set up with the cables around the back of the stands and tripod and used a mains extension cable to help.