Barn 1

Looking for any constructive comments on how to improve this image.

Thoughts on post processing also very valuable here. Thanks!

Seems to lack a bit of contrast. Light on her face is very good, and I don't mind some blown-out areas on a shot like this. Cut-off hand and elbow bother me a bit as well.

Erik,

She is a pretty girl. You have focused well on her eyes. She has good eye contact with the camera (viewer) and a nice smile. I like the highlight on her blonde hair. The background is nicely out of focus and she is quite well separated from it.

The lines in the background should be vertical. They are leaning as much as she is. Try to keep vertical lines vertical in your photographs. I don't like everything in the picture leaning to the right. Something is bound to fall over -- maybe me?

Neither of her hands nor her elbow should be cropped. You don't want to appear to crop her left hand by positioning it behind her head. It looks cropped at the wrist. It makes her look like an amputee.

I realize she is dressed casually, but I don't like all the wrinkles in her shirt. It takes it from casual to sloppy. She is getting her senior picture taken. That's important stuff to seniors and their parents and relatives. It is also very important to you -- repeat business and referrals! Plus, of course, you really want to do as good a job as you can for the girl by making her look her best. 

You have used your camera's flash as your main light. This will give you those tiny pointy looking little catch lights in the middle of her eyes. The ideal position for catch lights is close to the 10 or 2 o'clock position on her irises. To achieve this your main light should be above, in front and to the side of your subject. The camera’s flash will also give you very flat lighting. Judicious use of shadows can make your photograph much more interesting and create a nice illusion of depth within your photograph. It might look better just to bounce some light back onto her face to make it lighter and get some nice catchlights rather than use the built-in flash. I think Les is correct. This could use just a tad more contrast. It looks just a little muddy.

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 and more feminine, graceful and elegant if turned at an angle to the camera. The lines you see from an angle have more apparent motion, interest and grace. You usually do not want to have your subject turned 90 degrees to the camera. This can make the head look unsupported. As a rule it looks best to angle your subject somewhere around 45 degrees.

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. This little rule almost always works well. At least, it gives you a very good starting point to position your subject.

Nice shot,

Mark

This does lack contrast as others have said but I don't dislike the look you have created above. The homeliness of the model is perfectly captured through what you have done. I have added a version of this cropped how I'd liked to have seen it. I've also added a little more in the green channel.