If the shadows are all real and not photoshopped....then where is the shadow from her nose?
If the shadows are all real and not photoshopped....then where is the shadow from her nose?
Oh good grief. Not everything is some big dark conspiracy to make Sarah Palin look bad.
There are at least two light sources in that photo. One straight from in front of her and one somewhat above and over her right shoulder. It was a professional photo shoot, which means there were multiple lights of different brightnesses, a fan to help with the gentle breeze to move her hair that way, and light reflectors to fill in shadows. Can't be certain if the photo was shot in a studio with a background or outdoors. I believe the latter.
You can see the light straight in front reflected in her eyes, on her lips, and fingernails of her left hand. You can see the light approximately over her right shoulder from the shadows along the left side of her face and body contrasted with the brightness on her right.
There are correct shadows around her nose. Look closely at the right side of her nose vs. the left.
As is common with all cover photos, this one undoubtedly had the benefit of airbrushing to smooth out skin tone, eliminate wrinkles, and so on.
Minus typical airbrushing of that type, that is the way the woman looks. She is not smiling in the cover photo, but has a tight half-smile, almost a clenched jaw. The look in her eyes is not warm and smiling, but a mixture of wariness and defiance. Her facial structure is naturally square, with a broad, square jaw line. The photo is not bad, only different. Her fans are not used to seeing her this way. There is a hard quality to it, because that's what she wanted to portray about herself. Even the logo on her shirt says "edge fitness." She wanted the photo to have an edgy quality, not a soft one.