senior

Mel,

This is a very nicely done senior portrait. You have focused very well on her eyes. The background is nicely neutral. There are a couple of things I will point out for you to consider.

While she is somewhat separated from the background. You could have separated her even better with a little lighter background or by using a small hair or backlight. The left (her right) side of her hair is nicely separated from the background.

This is somewhat personal preference, but her skin tone looks a tad on the reddish side to me -- perhaps a little too warm. Her right cheek is a tad hot. You are very close to losing separation between her right cheek and the bridge of her nose.

 It appears she is looking slightly to the right (her left) of the camera. If not making eye contact with the camera (viewer), the eyes should follow the line of the nose. It is natural to look where your head is pointing. If looking off to the side you should show what she is looking at or provide a reason that she is not looking where her head is pointing. 

The lighting on her face looks very nice, but you have multiple catchlights in her eyes. One catch light per eye is preferred. The ideal location for the catch lights would be at about the 10 or 2 o'clock position on her irises. To achieve this you want the main light to come from above, in front and to her side. Of course, if you use butterfly (Hollywood/Paramount) lighting the catchlights would be above her pupils and the main light would be in front and above your subject.

Her pupils are quite dilated. If you use brighter modeling lights or have a brighter area to shoot her in, her eyes will not become so dilated.

Your top and bottom compositional balance looks very nice. Your left and right compositional balance is very left heavy. 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. By positioning the tip of her nose in the vertical center of the photograph you not only have her facing into the picture, but you also have good left and right compositional balance. The tip of her nose doesn't have to be exactly centered, but this gives you a good starting point from which to subtly adjust your composition to make it visually balanced. This little rule almost always works well.

You don't want anything to draw attention away from your subject. It would be quite appropriate to place your name on a mat surrounding the photograph. Photo.net is nice enough to place your name as photographer right below your photograph.

Nice shot,

Mark

Amazing skintones and lighting.

She reminds me of a muse to the classic painters of the romantic period.

Bravo'

Beautiful.....