Senior Photo

i think the crop is too tight.  the shoes are very close to being cut off, feels like it could have used some breathing room above her head aswell. 

Jim,

Samantha is obviously a beautiful girl with a very nice figure. I love the way the light is coming from behind her giving her that nice halo on her hair. It helps to separate her from the background. I like her expression, even if her head is tilted back.

The background is nicely out of focus which helps to allow Samantha to be separated from the background, but I don't like the haze. It almost looks washed out. I don't know what is causing it, but it looks odd to me. Maybe you shot this early in the morning and there really is haze in the background?

Stephen is quite correct about cropping too closely on the bottom and top. -- especially the bottom. The top wouldn't be so bad if you moved in closer to her and did a waist level or 3/4 shot. I am not a fan of full length portraits unless you have a good reason to do them. Maybe you want to show all of her gown and her shoes are especially nice looking. Portraits usually are about the face of the subject and not her feet. I like the face to take up more space in the picture. You can alway have her sit with her legs up toward her face if you want to show all of her.

I like the way you have her shoulder back and her chest out. It is showing off her figure nicely. I would not have her tilt her head back. She looks a little snooty and you are looking up her nose.

The main light on Samantha is coming from below her eyes. Notice how the shadow from her nose is going up her face. This looks really odd. The sun is obviously above and behind her. You just want to bounce (or in this case, use your on-camera flash) some light back onto her face to fill in the shadows and create nice catchlights.

She is wearing a lovely top, but in a portrait it would be best to avoid bright colors and bold patterns in clothing. In a portrait the subject’s face is what is most important and nothing should draw the viewer’s attention away from the face.

Avoid having the back (or palm) of the hand towards the camera. The edge (side) of the hand towards the camera is thinning, feminine and graceful. The little finger towards the camera with the fingers cascaded rather than side by side is preferred. Plus, her middle finger is forward. You haven't made her mad at you, have you?

I think the photograph needs to be a bit lighter. She is a little dark -- especially her face.

She has a very nice shape, but you have posed her pretty much straight on to the camera. 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. Just like posing her hand so that the edge is toward the camera, your subject will appear thinner and more feminine, graceful and elegant if turned at an angle to the camera. The lines you see from an angle have more apparent motion, interest and grace. You usually do not want to have your subject turned 90 degrees to the camera. This can make the head look unsupported. As a rule it looks best to angle your subject somewhere around 45 degrees.

I cropped the bottom that really wasn't needed anyway, lightened the photograph to give her a little better skin tone and cropped some of the right (her left) to give it better right and left compositional balance.

Nice shot,

Mark

With all due respect, way too much print on her shirt. It's a distraction.