Practicing lighting and composition The model is my sister

I was just practicing some Lighting techniques, manipulating

available light to pose as studio light. How is the lighting? I know

the hair and clothing could be better, we were just taking a bunch of

pictures for my exam for my photoghrapy course. I opted not to use

this one cause it looked too much like a school photo, was suppossed

to be something like a model head shot, so I chose another one I took

(Which my instructer just thought was fantastic, which made me feel

good). Thanks for any comments.

I like the other photo of your sister. This one.....Im not crazy about. I don't know what kind of lighting your using. Looks like one flash am I right? If so you need to move your light futher to the side and higher so that you get some shadows... soft shadows not to harsh you can use a reflector as your fill light (a white poster board will do. And the pose is too frontal. Have her turn side ways 3/4 turn facing away from your main light and turn eys facing the camera. Hope this helps.

Hey Holly. Thanks for putting enough info in your tech details for me to work with. Your window light source is a good one, but the fill isn't really very controllable. A mirror is more inclined to produce glare, and it reflects a very hard light which will cause a second shadow. Don't use the flash on the camera at all, if you want to get the picture you see when you look through the camera. Try a sheet of white matboard or foam core. The light it supplies will be more diffuse, it weighs (and costs) a lot less and you can knock it over without the dire consequences a falling mirror might cause... it's just better.

Your light is already far enough to the side, in fact if you turn your sister a little more toward the window, the light will just begin to fall on her left cheek and eye. Place thw white card where you have your mirror in this shot (far right?), and see what you get. The picture you have here shows a fill light that is almost as bright as the "main" light coming directly in the window (would that fill light be the mirror and a flash?). Try to make it (the fill light)at most half as bright as your window light is. You can control it's level of intensity by moving the white board nearer to, or further from your sister. Also, you might try a darker shirt.

The image seems soft, and I would guess a tripod would improve the sharpness, but I'm not too sure about the quality of your lens. Make more pictures... t