Photo Challenge: Strike a Pose

Okay, I completely forgot if I did this one or not. But this is for the prompt Strike a Pose for @OrchidDolls's Photo Challenge... which, yes, I am still tackling. This one is kind of mixed in with Full Body as well, which is quite rare for me to tackle... and I also think I already did! Shoot!

Oh well, as always, I will show you before-and-after editing, as well as my settings and an alternative angle to the same pose.

For this one I used my trusty, always loved, Minolta 58mm f1.4, at f2, ISO 640, 1/400 sec. Of course, it is manually focused (another of my adapted vintage lenses) and it was also hand-held. The min focusing distance of this lens is about 60cm, but I didn't have enough room, so I pushed V's head backwards to make her look up and I kneeled --I "gained" distance by changing the angle. I also tilted the frame, so that the doll was diagonal in the photo, to get the full body shot. Otherwise, once again, I required more space than what I had.

Of course, I always shoot RAW. But here is the before and after editing of the photo:

And also, because the pose was just too damn good (I am terrible at posing V, she always ends up so, so stiff!) I used another angle. I am fascinated at how much the scene/look of the photo can change with a simple review of the angle. Also, I edited this one in black and white just because it felt almost perfect!

I know this is a very short and unrelated post, but I had a nice time taking this photos and I thought I could share a bit of my struggles with you. Are you doing any photo challenges this year? I'm sure gonna do a-doll-a-day in a year again, so... You'll have more of these posts! Should I do them like a prompt? With my own topics to teach/practice photography and explaining how to do it? What do you think?