single photos ruby

plz comment.

Sesham,

 

Ruby is a pretty girl. You have focused well on her eyes. She has good eye contact with the camera (viewer) and a pleasant expression. Her skin tone is very good. The lighting works well to help create an illusion of depth within your Photograph. The background is nicely neutral.

 

It appears you may have been shooting a fashion shot rather than a portrait, but, of course, they can be very closely related. The colors of her outfit are subdued, but rather busy which does draw my attention away from her face. My eyes keep going to her patterned chest away from her face.

 

Her feet are very close to the bottom of the frame and her shawl (I think it's a shawl) is flowing out of the lower left corner of you picture. This hurts your top and bottom compositional balance.

 

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. You could just have her turn her face to her right so that she is looking into the picture.

 

Her make-up looks good, but I would like to see a little more light on her eyes. They looks quite dark -- especially under her eyes. She also needs catch lights to give her eyes life.

 

Maybe it is a cultural thing, but I find it rather unusual to have her fingernail and toenail polish not match in color.

 

I would shoot her so that she appear to be at eye level. You don't want to be shooting up to her. It really is not good to be looking up her nose.

 

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. Your subject will appear thinner, more feminine and more graceful if turned at an angle to the camera. The lines you see from an angle have more apparent motion, interest and grace. The waistline will appear thinner if turned to the shadow side of the frame. You do not want to have your subject turned 90 degrees to the camera. This makes the head look unsupported. It usually looks best to angle your subject somewhere around 45 degrees.

 

Notice the indentation at her left hip. That is either a line caused by her pants or it is a pantie line. You don't want that line showing. You would probably get rid of it by having her turn at an angle to the camera.

 

Avoid having the backs of the hands toward the camera. The edge (side) of the hand towards the camera -- just like turning her body at an angle to the camera -- is thinning, feminine and graceful.

I like the photo a lot as it is (and the best of the three); a portrait of a beautiful, self concious woman, looking down. No need to make her thinner or more feminine. regards