0810

Denis,

She is a very pretty girl with beautiful eyes, but I wouldn't want to make her look too "blonde". This pose is a little too cutesy. Either that or she just saw something she didn't like and was going to gag herself -- like in, "gag me with a spoon". This doesn't work well as a "portrait" for me -- as a cute picture, yes -- portrait, no.

You have focused very well on her eyes. Her make-up is nicely applied. The lighting is good. Her skin tone is excellent (watch the reddish areas between her eyes and her chin). You have great catch lights. the background is nicely neutral and you have done a nice job of burning in the edges (I would have also burned the upper left corner a bit to match the rest of the background). I really like the highlights on her face and lips, but her nose and forehead look just a little oily. You might want to tone these areas down a bit. Her left temple is a little hot, too.

Cropping into her hair does imply that you will do a tight crop on the bottom. Cropping this tightly on the bottom needs an even tighter crop on top to compositionally balance the top and the bottom of the photograph. I would crop further into her head, if you want the bottom this tight (which is cute and works well). Of course, you could just zoom out (or back up) and include more of her in the portrait.

You could crop a little off the left side. 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.

In a portrait you want to avoid bright colors and bold patterns in clothing. The subject’s face is what is most important and nothing should draw the viewer’s attention away from her face. That yellow is awfully bright! The purple zigzags on her sleeve (coupled with the bright yellow) not only remind me that Easter is right around the corner, but draws my attention to the bottom of the photograph -- away from her face.

Avoid having the back of the hand towards the camera. The edge (side) of the hand towards the camera is thinning, feminine and graceful.

Be careful of that little wispy hair that is going into the corner of her right eye. I would remove it.

I am a little worried about her hand and her nose. I may be seeing something that isn't there, but you should be aware of foreshortening. Watch for anything closer to the camera than the body. If nearer the camera than her body her feet, knees, hands, elbows and shoulders will look out of proportion to the rest of the body -- larger than normal -- foreshortened. You have to be very careful of shooting a close-up of the face with a lens shorter than about 110 mm (film or FX digital) or 170 mm (DX digital). Shorter lenses can make the nose appear excessively large.

Nice shot,

Mark