Allison

Frank,

 Allison, except for her religious pants*, is wearing a dark costume.   When the viewer's eye looks at a dark subject against a background that has many light spots (here the sky between the trees) the eyes tend to move from her person to the spots.  Even if I look right in her face, I find my eyes darting to these "light traps" over and over again, especially the one above her shoulder.  That suggests a different choice of background or an hour spent retouching to make the trees look like they have more leaves to cover all those open spots.

 The amputation of her right foot (picture left) is unfortunate.  The position of her boots and the body stance is much of her character, in this picture. In fact, she appears a little upset or unhappy about something and she seems to be directing that attitude toward the camera (photographer?) and thus to all of us viewing her image.  Her hands are on her hips, in a defiant look and she is not smiling at us.

My regards,

Jerry                         *religious pants = holy

Jerry, thanks for the critique and I agree with everything you've said except for the smiling part. As I look at the portraits in the photo gallery, clearly half or more of them are not smiling and are receiving very good ratings. Here's another version of this shot (in the same sequence). What do you think?

I really like photo 2 better so I am uploading my take on that one.  My first impression when I saw this is "Tree Lady".  The tree branches, which might be considered false attachments, work for me to tell a "story" (in my mind) of a wood kick'n chick who does't mind getting a little torn up in order to dominate the forest.  I removed the light area of the branch next to her left boot to give clearer attention there.  Her knee skin color and blue jeans did not contribute to the story that impacted my mind so I selected those areas and took the tones down with curves.  For me, the open area of the background on the right is in balance with the more dense tree needles and forest on the left.  Her left boot is pointed to kick more daylight into the forest, as she deems needed, and her right boot is pointed at the viewer in case we try to stop her.  And you probably thought this was just another senior portrait outing!  For me, the above story is the same with either version.  Good and interesting job.

The photo is almost perfect. However the right foot is cut off and there is too much empty space above her.

Bob does not like the empty space over her head but I believe it is more because her foot cut off, so it is easy to notice other things.  Combine your two images and I think you have got something very strong compositionally.  The outdoors is "big" so room over her head makes sense to me.  The elements in your image are no accident, no random throwing together of model, clothes and background.  They came together one decision at a time on Allison's part and your part, and together you produced a potentially theatrically strong image.  To talk too much about bright spots and expression and such is like talking about the words in a dictionary but missing the story they tell when they are put together well.  One improperly used word can muddy communication, one glaring photographic no-no (chopped off boot) can suck the credibility and impact from the visual story and get you poor rating.  Getting it right in the camera is desirable but not the only way to get it right.  Your imagination and problem solving ability counts for a lot in fashioning the end result----which is what you want to take control of so you feel you have done your best and feel confident you are ready to present your visual statement.  I know I ramble but I hope this is helpful.