Thank you all so much for your input - it is so nice to get it!
Mari and Leslie, it was a major learning for me that you both touched on the shadow and how I didn't make use of it. My lack of experience here, I thought the shadow reflected too much "snapshot". I think it has been the wildest ride trying to relearn all of my studio 101, with temperature and value. These are two things I never really dealt with as an art director for all these years. I left it to the stylist and photographer to worry about, and knew when I liked it. Reading Chris Saper's book re-introduced it to me. (I was playing golf one day with a guy named Kelvin, so I asked him what prompted his mother to name him after a light temperature scale? - he asked if I was a scientist! LOLOLOL).
I think I struggle with the hard vs. soft edges too - I can tell I will learn so much here.
Mari, your DC friend's work is amazing!