Lovely girl in field

Beautiful setting. Nice pose. Lovely model. Overall, this is a decent picture with potential for improvement. The following are my personal preferences and opinions - not rules to live by.

When it comes to nudes in nature, I tend to feel that wardrobe of any kind is a distraction. It's man-made and covers the natural beauty of the model. In this case, you have a model who, by appearance, is 98% nude to begin with. The straps of her thong are very obvious to my eyes and leave unflattering bunches of skin that are augmented by the harsh sun light. Their color is also not complimentary to the model nor ambiguous enough to go unnoticed. I would either go with more fabric if the model desired some level of modesty (be careful of the color choice), or, lose the thong all together.

Lighting can be very tricky in natural settings. I like the back lit use of the sun here. The way her arm frames her face and how it's lit from behind is a wonderful play with light. I can see you metered for the scene as it is well balanced. The highlights on her skin are washing out though. Some reflected light from camera left, or the use of fill flash would have been nice to illuminate the "dark side" of the model just a little more, bringing more balance to the light on her skin. In an open setting such as this, a silhouette shot would be near impossible, so more light, not less, is needed so that the model doesn't look dim in such a brilliant setting.

One trick I have all my models do is to pretend that their feet are held by the earth and their heads are being pulled upwards towards the sky - thus - elongating their bodies and creating tight muscles, taut skin and flattering curves. I feel that this model could have "stretched" upwards just a little more, like a flower reaching for the sun, giving her a more sculpted figure. It might have helped a little with the bunched skin at the thong too.

I think this image is quite good actually. My comments above are again, my opinions on what "might" improve this image and are things that I've come to look for while practicing my craft. I would like to see more of your work and watch as you develop your style and signature look. You have a great start, keep working on it.

Thank you for sharing with us.

David

Steve, Nudes are like sunsets.  You can never feel that you have captured the optimum, so you keep taking them.  A couple of suggestions I would make are:

1. Some fill flash or reflector light to brighten the shadows would help and at the same time put enough light on the hair to give texture to what is now just a dark mass.

2. Placing the figure so that she is not dead center would add a bit of dynamic interest.  Try holding your hand up to the screen and block off some of the background on the left.  Adding more space to the right side would help, I believe.

My regards,

Jerry