a self portrait attempt

[raingirl]

Okay, lets try this again! This is another batch of self portraits i recently took. Not exactly beauty shots as i was experimenting with different emotions. Taken with my new Sony Cyber-Shot in my room. Minimal editing on Microsoft Photo Editor. Opinions?

http://rain-city-girl.smugmug.com/Other/Animals-and-portraits/Jan-5-2010-013/759047663_GuKSn-S.jpg

http://rain-city-girl.smugmug.com/Other/Animals-and-portraits/Jan-5-2010-004/759047512_ZVeJS-M.jpg

http://rain-city-girl.smugmug.com/Other/Animals-and-portraits/Jan-5-2010-001/759047491_3GcZs-M.jpg

http://rain-city-girl.smugmug.com/Other/Animals-and-portraits/Jan-5-2010-025/759047737_6hsai-M.jpg

http://rain-city-girl.smugmug.com/Other/Animals-and-portraits/Jan-5-2010-005/759047553_qszF9-M.jpg

[CyberSteak]

Um...angry? You've done better then these for sure.

[lfortier]

Cyberstreak is right.
Your avatar looks better.

Smile more. you look nice when you smile.

[Jwar]

agree, we've seen better, but 3&5 have potential. I don't know if you can try 5 again but widen the frame to get your arm in.

[Scott_Quier]

I have to agree with the others .... not your best work, but experiments rarely are one's best work.

As for the comment suggesting more smiles - not so sure that's what you were going for. Your OP says you were experimenting with different emotions - obviously not joy or happiness ! :D As for "different" emotions, not sure you got much variation.

Some suggestions to improve the "technical" IQ:

"The Eyes have it" - and your first image doesn't. I'm not sure where your pupils are in that shot, but I sure don't see much evidence of them. Spooky
Think about the crop and composition. Cropping through joints is usually not a goodness. Taking a look at your second photos (OBTW - consider numbering your images in your posts - makes commenting on them much easier), I really like the framing/composition save for the lower-left corner. Can't decide if that's your clavical (and you have your camera resting on a surface) or if that's mucscle tension and you're holding the camera in your out-stretched hand. Either way ....
#3 has some merit (my opinion only, worth about as much as you paid for it :D). I think a re-crop might be in order - remove some from the top. Playing with it, I cropped down to just above the "V" in your hair part - yes, cut off the top of your head - and I think I like it. A bit more light in the eyes might be nice and I would really like to see your left eye.
The crop on the last one - would like to see the elbow - looks kinda strange without it. Some needs to be cropped from the top as well - just not sure how much.
Watch your backgrounds - There's something that looks like a doorframe in a couple of the images and it's distracting in each of them.
Think about your White Balance

I hope this doesn't sound too patronizing, but I think it takes a lot of guts to post something like this and open yourself to getting slammed. Good on you :thumb I'm really looking forward to reading about your next experiment!!

[sweet caroline]

I agree with Scott- it takes guts to post. He gives some good technical advice, so I'm not going to add to that now. I do want to say that I'm always interested when I see your posts because you seem so committed to learning and open to the feedback you receive here. You handle criticism very graciously. Not to mention that you seem to have some natural talent for photography:)

Caroline