[Flickster]

I know I framed arms incorrectly, but would appreciate comments on one of my first portrait sittings



Wayne

[fionaB]

apart from the arms, all i would do to this would be to lose a tad off the top. this is only my opinion mind! a wonderful image and im sure that since then you have taken a whole ream of portraits!

Fi

[Dave]

Lovely lighting & you seem to have the model at ease, which is half the battle. Not sure how you would get rid of the shadow at the bottom left though ?

[Dabhand16]

Maybe a vignette would solve the arms issue? (and maybe the shadow in the LHS too).

[danpen]

I like this, for me the most important thing about a portrait is that something about the subject, feelings, character etc comes across. In this shot there's good eye contact with the model who looks relaxed and comfortable.

Framing could be better, as you said the arms aren't quite right, the one on the right hands side (her left) doesn't bother me as much as the one on the left hand side, it just seems to lead my eye out of the shot. I also agree that cropping a bit of that white space at the top would improve it.

The lighting mostly works, good blown out background, nice catchlights in the eyes and hair. The forehead looks a touch over exposed and the highlight on the tip of the nose is a little distracting, but there's no annoying shadows on the subject which is good.

Not much required to take this from a nice shot to a really lovely portrait, if your model is a friend or relative, try again you'll be able to give her a portrait she can be really pleased with.

[Flickster]

Thank you for your comments so far. Although this may sound a little dumb, I am a portrait photographer for a national company, however....All of my sittings there, are set up in school halls etc and the company use a system that never changes, by that I mean the settings are never touched always 1/125s F8, the lights are always in the same place, same power etc..
I call it Mcdonalds photography, sit, click, thank you, have a nice day all in 20 seconds.

I am using lights (Interfit EX150) that are far inferior to work lighting (Bowens)and obviously don't have as much room as I would at work.

[ftmftm]

trying lowering your lights down abit instead of been above her, that will stop the shadows as strong

[Rob Barron]

I have pimped this to add a strong vignette just to show how this would focus attention into the face and not allow the arms to take the eye away out of the picture. Having said that, I just realised you have not got your 'Edit Pics' box ticked so out of respect for your wishes, I won't post it unless you say so :o)

Cheers,
Rob