Heather

Will,

Heather is a beautiful girl. You have focused very well on her eyes. She has very good skin tones. The background is nicely neutral and well burned in on the edges. The contrast is excellent and the color saturation is very good.

Your main light coming at the direction of her nose works very well to create shadows on her left cheek to help create a nice illusion of depth. She has a very graceful and feminine curve to her pose. Her eye contact is very good with the camera (viewer) and she has a nice seductive expression. Her make-up is very good.

Your backlight works nicely to help separate her from the background, but be careful how it falls on her chin and neck. You don't want to light her chin from the back and the cords in her neck have become well exposed to the viewer.

Do not pose your subject straight on to the camera. This is not a very feminine pose. Showing your subject’s widest areas (shoulder to shoulder or hip to hip) makes those areas appear wide. Your subject will appear thinner, more feminine and more graceful if turned at an angle to the camera. The lines you see from an angle have more apparent motion, interest and grace. The waistline will appear thinner if turned to the shadow side of the frame. You do not want to have your subject turned 90 degrees to the camera. This makes the head look unsupported. It usually looks best to angle your subject somewhere around 45 degrees.

Your portrait would be more compositionally balance if she would turn her head to her left. Your subject should have more room in front of her than behind. This allows her to be facing into the picture, not out of it. 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.

Her left arm looks a little awkward. I would try to pose her hands a little more with their edges toward the camera. Having the edge (side) of the hand toward the camera has the same effect as turning the body at an angle to the camera. It is slimming, graceful and feminine.

Your name is not part of the photograph. It belongs on the mat.

Nice shot,

Mark