An attempt at trying something new with lighting a dark scene. Also an attempt at capturing a particular emotion I've been feeling. And of course, Vasilisa was up to the challenge. I gave her darker hair here, but kept the buzz cut. I'll probably stick to the platinum color in the future, but in this image I wanted darker tones. I also figure, for a lady who keeps it buzzed short, dying it wouldn't be a big deal. Hmmm. Maybe I should try something crazy, like purple? Shirt is a new purchase from Causam3d. I think in the future I'm going to have to play with the textures. It works alright here, but under a "normal" lighting situation, it kind of looks like it's made out of polyester which I don't care for. Maybe somebody will release a texture expansion for the product - I'd love some flannel textures! Still, it goes through simulation nice, and there's options for different bust sizes which is thoughtful. Overall I'm happy with the purchase. Lighting is two spotlights, and two objects in the scene turned into emmisives. One spotlight it a tightbeam, disc shape, set to a white color. This I pointed beside here and it does most of the heavy lifting. The second spot is behind her, pointed at her shoulders. Much less intense, and the color is a very pale yellow. There was some debris on the floor that became a red emmisive, and the front of a washing machine is now a blue emmisive. I was impressed at how well it balanced the colors out, kept the scene feeling dark, and yet there's plenty of definition. I might have to try this idea out again. It is important to note that you want all the color temp settings to be identical as the computer doesn't like it much if they're all different. A little work in gimp to increase the sharpness a bit, and I think it's good. I've taken to turning the brightness down on my monitor - people keep telling me that images are "too dark." I figure if I start from a darker monitor and work up to where the image looks right to me, then maybe it won't be "too dark" for others. I'm both light sensitive and color blind, so much of my learning has been to correct for both. I am humbled by the response on my last image. I haven't been very active, so to see so many comments... it warms my heart. Slowly working my way through this depressive episode. I hold onto hope that the sun will shine again. In the meantime? I think images like this are a good way to express what I'm feeling, while feeding my starving creative brain.