I imagined this photo in my head and I wanted to use black as background. I set up the black velvet for background and put the bust and the mirror on the table. The mirror reflected the bare wall which was not black and ruined what I first saw in my head. I rearranged the background and bought a few more yards of black velvet to cover the wall.
For lighting I used two small low-wattage bulbs on each side and a halogen lamp diffused with white paper on top. I used long exposure and a narrow aperture as I didn't want the foreground to be too blurry.
Shot in raw mode.
Post processing: levels adjustment, color adjustment, a little bit of burning, cloning of some unwanted white spots, cropped, resized, Neat Image, USM.
Canon 24-70mm f2.8L USM.
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There's little that I can say that hasn't been said by others. The tonal range is exceptional. I especially like how you kept the focus slightly soft on the foreground so that the eye goes to the reflected image first. While I initially thought the light might be a little hot on the temple and cheek of the reflected image, my eye immediately goes to that spot, holding me on the face, focusing on the detail of the hair, and then finally pulling back to take in the rest of the shot.
It's such a beautiful image that all I can do is point out some very minor details that caught my eye:
1) Does the bust have a dimpled chin? There is a small 7 shaped shadow under the lower lip and traveling down the chin. It made me wonder about the shape of the lips and the chin.
2) Maybe I can't see it on my monitor, but it looks like the line of the arm holding up the frame is lost in the background. Right before it hits the base, it becomes very dark. As I said, maybe I just can't see it, but it was the only time I saw a line get lost in the shadow.
3) Is there a crack on the bridge of the nose? I noticed some strange little lines.
There's nothing more I can say on this one. It has been beautifully executed. Please excuse the anal-retentive quality of the comments, but your skill has left me precious-little to critique. :-) An excellent, excellent job and intrepretation of the challenge topic. Congratulations!
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