Need advice on lighting setup to mimic these photographs

[wsmith96]

I'm shooting my daughter's orchestra portrait for our family and I was looking at examples out on the interwebs. I found this site http://jenniferbrindleyphotography.com/blog/promotional-images-milwaukee-orchestra-margot-violin that has the look that I'm wanting to recreate. In particular, the second black and white photo and the third photo with the woman holding her violin upright.

From what I can tell, it appears that the light in the black and white portrait is almost over head based upon how the shadows fall on her fingers and arms with a backlight. The third portrait is similarly lit but she may have a reflector below her taking some of the shadow away on her neck and chin. Did I assess these correctly, or am I missing something? She's probably using a beauty dish.

Equipment wise, I've got a pair of 24x24 softboxes, some reflectors, an umbrella, and 3 speedlights at my disposal to try to recreate this. My thought was to put a softbox on a boom overhead in front coming down at a 45 angle, a reflector underneath reflecting up at a 45 angle, and a backlight at just enough power to give that glow on the background. I'll be using black or gray paper as the background.

Based upon this, does anyone have other suggestions on a setup to mimic this with the equipment I have?

 

[privatebydesign]

I'd say you were pretty close, though I don't believe there is a reflector in either. There is no lower catchlight in her eye. I believe the lightening is from dodging and burning in post, there is a fair bit in the B&W for sure.

The B&W looks as thought the light is pretty close as there is falloff, but that could be D&B, the colour one has no falloff so I would expect the light to be quite a bit higher up, but it is still soft so would be larger, maybe both softboxes next to each other to create a 24" x 48" light. So softbox on the boom above and tilted slightly forwards and/or egg crated (to prevent spill on the background) and a speedlight for the background and you have it. Stick a bit of black foamcore on the front edge of the softbox to stop spill creating flare and loss of contrast.