Ariel

I think that the composition and light are quite good. I'm not a tattoo fan, which may color my view of the shot, but we all bring our own prejudices. I don't like the eye makeup, or the fill-in on the brows. I do like her expression, but not the blocked shadows at the end of her hair.

Michael,

Ariel is a beautiful girl. You have focused quite well on her eyes. This is a very well done profile. Her skin tone is very nice. The background is nicely neutral. 

It would be good to get a catch light in her left eye to give it more life and help separate her eyelashes. Her mascara is a little dark and it is hard to see eyelash separation.

I am a fan of feminine tattoos . I assume you want to show off her tattoo. You could have her angled a bit to the camera. This would be better than having her back straight on to the camera. Her body angled to the camera will help her to appear thinner and  more feminine and graceful. Her back looks quite wide.

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.

If you want to show her back straight on to the camera, I would back up to show all of the tattoo, crop the right side with just a little room to the right of the tattoo. Give her enough room on the left so that the tip of her nose is in the vertical center of the photograph.

She has very pretty hair. Don't darken the top of her head. Cropping into her head implies a very tight crop on the bottom. Give her some headroom. I would use a hair or backlight to put a nice highlight in her hair and to better separate it from the background.

Les is quite correct about the eyebrows and the tip of her hair. With a little more light for a catch light I think the mascara will work nicely. Be careful of the bulge of her skin near her armpit. You don't want to make her appear pudgy.

I know you want to light the tattoo, but your lighting is awfully flat. Judicious use of shadows can make your photograph much more interesting and create a nice illusion of depth within your photograph.

Nice shot,

Mark

PDE