Cindy

[Chataignier]

Lit by a single strobe with large softbox positioned 20cm from her head/shoulder camera right, then removed in PP.

Background light effect added in PP.

[Manfred M]

Nice model, outfit and background.

A couple of technical decisions are not quite working for me:

Focal length used - there is some distortion here as the arm and shoulder dominate the shot, rather than the model's face. A longer focal length and the resulting compression would have created better balance here.

Getting your softbox that close to your subject has made the shoulder and arm much brighter than the model's face, so being farther away would smooth this transition. 20cm for a large soft box is very close. I generally look to keep my modifier a bit farther back to get a smoother transition, without the light drop off happening that quickly. A good rule of thumb is to keep the modifier 1 - 2 x the diagonal (for a rectangular soft box) or 1 - 2 x the diameter for a cicular one. That preserves the soft look and results in a smoother light drop off.

I find that the light is a little low too and too far back (almost a split-light setup). The shadow cast by by the model's nose and mouth look a little strange; half way between loop lighting (which would work well for a beauty shot like this one) and split lighting, which is a little less effective here.

[Chataignier]

Thanks for the comments Manfred. Helpful as always.
I do agree about the arm/shoulder, however, I'm surprised because it was shot at around 100mm focal length (65 on an APS). I'll try toning the area down in post.
As for loop/split, yes I agree, I should have moved the light round a bit more towards loop. I'll try again in a few days.
The model, by the way, is a high-ranking police officer that I met by chance some months ago.