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Beautiful portrait Peter, amazing b/w tones!

Peter,

You have sharp focus on her eyelids (I can't see her eyes, but I will assume they are also in focus). The composition as far a the left and right sides are concerned is very good. I am not real sure why you cropped into her hair just that little bit. I would suggest that if you are going to crop into a girl's hair you would want to do it far enough that it looks like you meant to do it -- not so little that it could have been a mistake. Usually, when you crop into the hair it implies you are going to crop tightly on the bottom, which you did not do. To make a long story short -- she needs some head room. That will give you top and bottom balance.

If you would have moved your main light back just a wee bit you would have moved the shadow from her nose across the edge of her mouth and connected it with the shadow on the right side of her face. This would have given you Rembrandt lighting. This doesn't really mean too much -- I just thought I would throw that in for a bit of trivial information.

Her hand is brighter than her face. Being brighter, it draws the viewer's attention away from her face. It is a bit of a problem when you include a hand in a tight shot of the face. Notice that you do not show where the hand connects to her arm. This makes one wonder if this hand is indeed her hand, or if it belongs to someone standing beside her?

Her make-up was applied very well. She has great specular highlights on her lips. I like her shiny eye shadow. I really wish I could see her eyes, though. I'll bet they are very pretty. I would love to see some nice catch lights in them, also. That would really make this picture come alive.

You have beautiful skin tones on her face and chest. That is quite a large expanse of chest area. It draws my attention because there is so much of it. I think it might have worked better if a bit of it was covered or in shadow.

You have her facing straight on to the camera. This is not so much of a problem because you are quite close to her. If you were just a little further back there would be much more of a problem. Because she is straight on to the camera you are showing her widest area (from shoulder to shoulder -- not quite so much in this case, but you are sneaking up on it). This will tend to make that part of her appear quite wide (or large). If you were to have her turn a little, less of her would be showing. At a slight angle to the camera the body tends to appear slimmer, more feminine and more graceful. Which, in a female, is very good.

I rather like the deep shadows. It adds some mystery and drama to the scene, although I can understand why some people might be a bit upset at you for not having any detail in your shadow areas. Her hair is really quite well separated from the background. I really like your dark background. The light area going through her head doesn't really bother me much.

The copyright symbol, your name and your web site are not part of the photograph. They belong on the mat.

Good shot,

Mark