Beauty in purple necklace

Jean-Michel,

She is indeed a beautiful girl. Her skin tone is very good. She has excellent eye contact with the camera (viewer). You have focused well on her eyes.

Her expression looks a little harsh to me. Maybe stern is a better word.  I don't know if she is angry or her shoes are too tight, but she isn't a very happy puppy. I sort of feel sorry for her. 

Her make-up looks very good, but she is a little red and puffy under her eyes.

Be careful of using side kickers. You don't want to make them too noticeable. They should only enhance your subject and perhaps help to separate her from the background. In this portrait, they help her blend into the background more than separate her from it. You never want the lighting itself to become the subject or even a secondary subject. The viewer's eye should never be drawn to the lighting itself -- only to the subject. Try to keep your kickers more of a rim light. You certainly don't want any to spill onto her nose. The one on the left (her right) is washing out the color of her earring. You don't want to do that.

I kind of like her rather unkempt hair, but it is a little much on the top of her head and her bangs are going every which way. I don't really like her bangs falling across her eyes, either.

You have cropped into her hair. This implies a tighter crop on the bottom than you have. You have her turned at a slight angle to the camera which looks very good. You should crop a tad off the left side because you want more room in front of her than behind. You want her to be facing into the picture, not out of it. It won't take much of a crop off the left side to balance this photograph.

You have two catchlights in each eye. One catchlight per eye is preferred.

My rendition has a better balanced crop. I could actually have cropped a bit more off of the bottom, but I couldn't crop into her necklace. I have taken the bottom catchlights out of her eyes and intensified the color a bit. By cropping some off the bottom I have removed your initials and advertising.

Your initials and advertising (jeanmichelcabanis.com) is not part of the photograph. It would be quite appropriate to place your name (and even the date) on a mat surrounding the photograph. Advertising would be better placed on the back of the photograph.

Nice shot,

Mark

Exceptional beauty. Congratulations.

PDE