Untitled

Andrew,

She is a very beautiful girl. You have focused well on her eyes. She has very good eye contact with the camera (viewer) and a very nice intense expression. Her skin tone is very good. The lighting is good and she has good catch lights. I love the specular highlights on her lips. The pose is very nice. Thank you for having her feet bare. So often I see portraits of girls sitting with their legs tucked under them while wearing high heals -- just not natural.

Many people like that much room above and below the subject on a traditional formal portrait -- personal taste. It does work well within an appropriate setting, like she is in. Her left elbow is crowding the side of the frame, but not as much as her right foot. You want to give her enough room to breathe.

The contrast may be a little high. You have lost a lot of detail in the blacks.

You might want to tone down the reflection on her shoulder, knee and the far arm of the chair.

You have nice vertical lines in the background except for the brown drape. At least it creates a diagonal line angled towards your subject.

The background is quite sharp, which doesn't really bother me because of the nice tones that go very well with the subject's skin tones and dress. What does bother me a bit is that I keep looking in the upper right corner because I do not know what is there. My eyes keep going back to try to figure it out. That is a bit annoying.

Avoid having the back of the hands toward the camera. The edge (side) of the hand towards the camera is thinning, feminine and graceful. Her hands are also lighter than her arms and her face. This draws attention away from her face. Her knuckles look a little red (dish pan hands?). Two of her fingers on her right hand are cropped off by having then under the folds of her dress. At least that looks like what is cutting them off.

Nice shot,

Mark

Mark,

Thanks a lot for your very detailed critique. I appreciate you comments very much and I am very grateful for the time you spend to help me to improve.

I agree with most of your remarks. I increased the contrast and reduced details so it will look more like a painting.

However when I used some of the corrections that you suggested image improved significantly. I will post it this evening.

Best regards,

Andrew

beautiful portrat, details and frame. Well done..!

Ricardo