Sweet talk

A chance shot , the only time she smiled . Don't be frightened to

critiquise ! Thank you . Bill

William,

What a cutie! You have focused well on her eyes. Her make-up is perky and fun. Her eyeshadow goes well with her top and necklace. I love her expression. Her shut eyes create a nice mood. There is nothing that says you must show the subject's eyes to get a good portrait. Her skin tone is very nice. The background is nicely neutral and she is well separated from it. The lighting is soft and pretty.

The colors are washed out. You could increase the exposure and contrast.

The background is so white that you should whiten her teeth a bit, so there isn't as much difference between the two whites.

You have a merger of the tip of her nose and her far cheek. Be careful of split profiles. You do not want the tip of her nose to come close to touching the far cheek line. You want to make sure the far eye is either completely showing or not showing at all. You do not want to have the bridge of her nose cut into her far eye.

Avoid having the back or palm of the hand towards the camera. The edge (side) of the hand towards the camera is thinning, feminine and graceful. The little finger towards the camera with the fingers cascaded rather than side by side is preferred.

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. By positioning the tip of her nose in the vertical center of the photograph you not only have her facing into the picture, but you have good left and right compositional balance. This little rule almost always works well. At least it gives you a good starting point from which to subtly adjust your composition to make it visually balanced.

I would not use a white vignette with the edge blur. It doesn't do anything to help the image. As a general rule when using special effects on a photograph (especially a portrait), the effect itself should not be noticeable. It should not distract from the subject. It should only be used to enhance the photograph and bring out the natural beauty of your subject. It is not an end in itself. It is merely a means to an end. 

I tried to improve the tones, but I did not crop to remove the vignette. It would have not left much of the girl.

Nice shot,

Mark

I like her expression, the pose bring out her makeup in a good way.

Best regards Tore

I should have pointed out that this was virtualy a grab shot while she was on the ' phone . I used the vignette to mask out background clutter , I knocked back the saturation a tad as it was being printed on Soft textured art paper . ( Papermill Direct ) .

I'm always interested to read Mark's comments and I thank you both . Bill

I like the image on many levels the ease at which the pose is, the softness of the development process the expression the eyes down all come together for a great shot... Always nice to see your work William... MJ

Bill I feel this is one of your best images, she looks stunning!!!   WR.

Thanks M.J. and Jorge , I'm sorry to be late showing my gratitude , I'm still playing catchup . Bill