It was for the Mexican equivalent of a sweet sixteen. I've know this girl all of her life. Although I took pictures that were better than this, this exact image made me think: damn, she's gotten so pretty - i used to carry her!

Very nice!!!
I don,t know what else to say!!
But I love portraits in black and white, and especially when the subject is not posing artificially for the photographer
This one looks so natural and full of emotion!

Thank you miss marie. I really appreciate your comments. In my opinion, natural portrature is best.

Stunning image!

agreed great use of natural light and use of facial expression. Gotta love B&W photos

Her body is at a nice position but I think eyes looking up at the camera would of been a killer. The shadow looks muddy and she's going to need a bit of skin retouching.

Good job though mate

If her eyes would have been looking at the camera, then it would not portray the fact that she was crying because she was so nervous. You're right about the skin re-touching, but this is as natural as a 15 year old gets
Finally, you're right about the shadow looking muddy. What could I have done to prevent it? My BW post-editing sucks.

I can't tell if she was crying anyway?

The muddyness comes from shooting in such a high contrast light range where your shadow is dominant in the shot. The shadows are struggling for detail when you expose for the highlights so when you push it, the detail is ugly.

I think you should of shot this on the other side of the light. Or use a reflector to lightly fill the shadow.

Re touch it in colour before changing to b+w. Pm me the high res and I'll have a fiddle if you want.

Have you got any others from the set that are similar?