Lena

I definitely need detailed comments on this particular photo since I have quite hot

argues about it with my club members. So I seek for advanced comments. Thanks in

advance.

Denis,

OK, I'll try to get detailed and give you some of my thought on this portrait. First of all, Lena is a beautiful girl. If there are any problems with this portrait I don't think she caused them. It is always good to start with a beautiful subject.

You have focused well on her eyes. She has good eye contact with the camera (viewer) and her expression is pleasant. Her make-up looks very good and her skin tone is nice. Your left and right compositional balance is good. I try to position the tip of the nose in the vertical center of the photograph for a relatively close portrait. Unless there is something important in the background that should be shown or a prop of some kind to balance an off center position of the subject, the old tip of nose in the vertical center usually works very well.

The out of focus white dots (perhaps snowflakes) in the background don't bother me at all. They do not draw attention away from Lena, so your background is fine. The white on the lower right (her left) also isn't obtrusive. 

You have cropped into her hair which calls for a little tighter crop on the bottom. I try to position the eyes about one third of the way down from the top on a close portrait.

You have multiple catch lights in her eyes. One catch light per eye is preferred.

There is one main light. That's why it is call the main light. Your kicker on the left (her right) is brighter than your main light -- the left (her right) side of her face is brighter than the left side. I usually don't like a kicker touching the cheek and especially not the nose. It is just advertising that there is more than one light on your subject. The kicker does light her hair very nicely allowing good separation from the background and some pretty highlights. Of course, a hair or backlight could do that and not hit her face. She does have nice specular highlights on her lips. 

I'm not real fond of the hair falling across her right eye, but you can see her eye and catch lights (should be one), so it's not as bad as it could be. It would be better if there weren't any loose hairs across her eye -- just a nice sweep of hair. Be careful of the shadow to the left of her left eye caused by her hair. You did ask for a detailed critique. Her hair in general isn't as well styled as it could be. It looks a little messy -- not a good messy.

Her skin tone is very nice, but the light on her chest is completely surrounded by dark. This draws attention to that lit area. This is not always bad -- and sometime very nice. In Lena's case this isn't much of a problem, and my calling attention to it may be considered really reaching for it, but notice the neckline of her top. The viewer's eyes will go to the “V” formed by the sides (mostly her right side) of the neckline and follow it down and out of the photograph because there is nothing there to stop them. You should try to crop below where the “V” of the neckline comes together so that the viewer's eyes have a place to stop. You do not want the eyes of the viewer to leave the photograph. At least it would be good to crop just a little lower to include more dark area on the bottom. If you do add any more room on the bottom, I certainly would crop above her head. This would give her better top and bottom compositional balance.

Except for the extra lighting on her face, all and all, this is a good portrait of a very beautiful girl.

Nice shot,

Mark

I'm not advanced, and I don't want to get in the middle of a hot argument, but here's my two bits' worth.  This portrait features core lighting.  The lights are of different color temperatures, which gives the shadow side a different character from the lit side and something of a split personality--all right if that's the point, but it tends to impair the integrity of the image.  The model is attractive, but the raking light is not kind to her complexion.  Her eyes should dominate the image, but they are a little obscured by shadow.  A bit of post-processing would produce a more flattering picture.

Many thanks, friends, for your valuable inputs !!!

They really help to understand where I can improve !