Dakini-Uma-Amitabha_2_

The idea for this pic is certainly right. The model is posed well and her figure is just right (i.e. not a matchstick!). So your fundamentals are very good.

The image overall, though, looks like half potential art, half rapidly taken snapshot. The location is fine, but the composition and perspective is 'boring'. But allow me to explain.

Firstly, if it were possible, you could have used reflectors to even out the shadows on the model's face and torso. They aren't that bad, but the lighting on her upper chest is too harsh, where the lighting of her left side is too dull. Also, look at her arms and determine if the lighting (i.e. sunlight) is as good as it could be.

Her left foot, on account of being buried in the grass, makes her look as if she doesn't have one!

The background completely ruins the shot. It interferes with the model - if you really want background foliage, you could render it OOF. I think the sky would be the best background - hopefully cloudless. An alternative to must over: heavy, overcast sky with a subject lit by slow-synch flash, covered with warm-up filters.

Having ground, trees and cloudy (but blue) sky all in the same shot takes away all the drama. I can't stand the pretentious, stark white backgrounds that Avedon liked (and which many younger photographers used to copy all the time) but the best type of background is an uncluttered one.

You could have shot from ground level and framed her from head to waist, and had a pure sky background. Perhaps raising her on a platform would be better still. Where your camera is now gives a boring perspective.

If you ever do another similar shot, let me know!

If you ever do another such shot, Karim is the last person on the planet I'd let know. I think this is a charming environmental portrait of this belly dancer and I take it for what it is, not what I wish it could be if I were the best photographer in the world and brought along a truck full of gear to shoot my candids with. Don't let the fools get you down Mathew. It always amazes me that the harshest ciritics are the most inept phtographers. Perhaps they should look at their own work once in a while :=}

This is wonderful work, regardless of what anyone says.

--Lannie

"half rapidly taken snapshot."

I second that.
Please don't try to knock someone who has a valid criticism