Nicola

maybe the full side profile is not the best, any better ideas

thanks for taking the time to take a look

John,

I'm not sure if Steve meant his comment as a complement or not?

There is nothing wrong with your pose (although a true profile would usually include the far eyelash only - not that this is of any interest to anyone, but me). You do have a couple of other problems that I would like to mention.

Her eye is in sharp focus. She has very nice skin tones (except she has a pinkish/reddish cast along along her jaw line and at areas on her chest and throat, and where her forehead meets her hair. She is separated from the background quite well, but a hair or backlight would help separate her more. She has a nice neutral expression. You have very good headroom above her.

I think the reason you may think this pose doesn't work for NIcola very well is that you do not have enough room in front of her. You want her to be looking into the picture, not out of it. The "rule" of thumb is to position the tip of the nose in the vertical center of the photograph. To do this you will lose much of her hair or you will have to back up and include more of her.

Her make-up looks quite good. Her eyeliner looks nice, but she could use more mascara and a little more eyeshadow. Just a little more blush would help. She needs catch lights in her eyes to help make them come alive.

Notice how your eyes go to the light area of her chest and follow it down and out of the photograph. This is because there is not a place for your eyes to stop within the photograph. If you would move back or zoom-out to include where the "V" of her top's neckline comes together your problem would be solved. Your eyes would then have a very natural place to stop (at the bottom of the “V”).

The orange in the background draws the viewer's attention away from her face. You do not want the vertical or horizontal lines going into Nicola's head from the window frame! The lines on her eyelids are quite pronounced. You may want to soften those lines.

Nice shot,

Mark