Snow White

Beautiful picture and perfect title.

Stéphane,

She is a beautiful girl. With her light hair the high key works very well. You have focused very well on her eyes. She has good eye contact with the camera (viewer) and a very nice (a little sexy) expression. Her expression is quite appropriate for this portrait. Her skin tone is excellent. With her lovely thin face the broad lighting works very well. I love her hair. Her light lips work very well with this image. The background is nicely neutral.

I'm not sure what is hanging down behind her. It could be a tie from a flowered choker necklace around her neck or something else. Whatever it is, being so dark, it draws attention away from your subject. It doesn't work with the high key look, either. The same is true about the dark area between her shoulder and her chin.

The dark mascara on her top eyelashes looks very good. I think she needs to do the same for her lower eyelashes and add a little eyeliner under her eyes. This would frame her eyes and help to make them stand out even more.

You have two catch lights in her eyes. One catch light per eye is preferred.

It is very good to have her turned at an angle to the camera. It helps make her appear thin, feminine, graceful and elegant. You normally do not want her to turn a full 90 degrees to the camera. This can make the head look unsupported. Having a shoulder toward the camera can caused a problem with foreshortening. Watch for anything closer to the camera than the body. If nearer the camera than her body her feet, knees, hands, elbows and shoulders will look out of proportion to the rest of the body -- larger than normal -- foreshortened.  It usually looks best to angle your subject somewhere around 45 degrees. 

Sleeveless clothing in close to head and shoulders portraits can cause problems. You want the viewer’s eyes to go to the subject's face without constantly jumping to her arm or shoulder. You do not want her face to compete with any other light areas in your photograph. 

I am not real fond of the position of her left arm. I don't really like cropping off her elbows on either arm, but for some reason her left arm looks out of proportion. With the darker flat lighting it almost doesn't look like an arm at all. It just doesn't look right. Maybe it's just me?

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. 

I think I would try to smooth out some of the wrinkles in her top.

Your name is not part of the photograph. It would be quite proper to place it on a mat.

Nice shot,

Mark