Dallas

Joanie,

Dallas is a beautiful girl! The pose is very good. You have focused very well on her eyes. She has wonderful eye contact with the camera (viewer). I like her friendly expression. Her skin tone is good. You have a good neutral background and Dallas is nicely separated from the background.

You have catch lights, but one catch light per eye is preferred. If you must have multiple catch lights one catch light per eye should be dominant. Her make-up is well done, but I would have liked to see a little darker lipstick or lipgloss and her eyebrows shaped better.

You have quite good top and bottom balance, but I would not have cut into her hair. Give her some head room. You could have cropped a little lower, too. You want to compositionally balance the left and right sides of the photograph. The compositional "rule" for this suggests that you position the tip of the subject's nose in the vertical center of the photograph. I would move her just a little to her left.

The lighting is a little flat. It looks more like lighting for a beauty shot than a portrait. Judicious use of shadows on her face would help you to create the illusion of depth within your photograph.

With so much neck and chest showing, I like to have a girl wear a necklace of some sort. It breaks up the area of skin a bit and adds a little femininity (not to say her chest is not feminine looking). This is just a personal liking and certainly was not intended to be a negative comment on your photograph.

Nice shot,

Mark