Diva... my friend Blythe, the mezzo-soprano

Some skin retouching, vignette, contrast and saturation adjustments

from original. Any recommendations for portrait editing or otherwise

welcome, thanks!

Grayson,

You have focused well on her eyes. She has very nice skin tone and has applied her make-up very well.

She has a rather blase´ looking expression. She doesn't appear to have eye contact with the camera (viewer). She is looking to the left of the camera? This you do not want.

There are areas around her (and her dress by her arm) that look blurred and lighter than they should. The background has random light dots on on it. This does not look good at all.

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.

You want to have catch lights in her eyes to give them life. The right side of her chest and her shoulder is lighter than her face. This draws the viewer's attention away from her face.

I appears you are shooting up on your subject. You want to have the camera at about eye level. Most viewers do not want to look up a subject's nose, no matter how good looking she is.

I am not sure if that is her hand on her head or if someone else is reaching in to scratch her head? You show no connection of the hand to the subject or even imply that it is her hand. It is kind of humorous, but I'm sure not intended.

This is not necessary, but I like to see a necklace on a girl with that much skin showing (if she is wearing a top). It sort of breaks up all that skin.

Nice shot,

Mark

Mark, thanks for the excellent feedback. I see what you mean about the hand : )... it is hers. This shot was taken in the midst of someone else's photo shoot (they were cool with me shooting too, but I was trying to stay out of the way) so she was looking at them and not me. I'm not sure I agree that the subject should always make eye contact with the camera, but in this shot I think it might be a slight improvement. I'll work on cloning the hand out and see what it looks like afterward. Thanks again!

-GM