I think there's a lot to like about your photo, really. Perhaps I'm biased, I dunno, but I never find portraits boring or repetitive.
Back to the topic: you have a very pretty model, her face, eyes and smile are lovely, and I'm pretty partial to tight framing as well, and like how you framed her face with her hair and all. So I like pretty much the whole shot.
Now, I also think there's a bit too much neck in your shot, and if it was my shot, I'd probably crop the bottom off, turning it into more of a square picture. To me, it looks more balanced that way, with her pair of eyes and her smile pretty much on the thirds of the frame.
But hey, perhaps that's just the fact I'm pretty much seeing squares everywhere now that I bought a square-format camera, who knows? And also, rules like the rule of thirds usually contribute more to making pictures more 'likeable' than actually good, so take these with a grain of salt.
Other people would probably tell you that they'd like to see more resolution on the shot, you know, more definition on her hair, things like that. Some other people would tell you that lighting is flat, that they'd like to see more shadow areas to give volume to her face, which would be achieved by off-camera lighting and so on.
I think you did pretty great with what you had, which was probably on-camera flash or something like that.
It all boils down to this: you probably like this girl a lot or at least find her really pretty, that's probably why you said you wish your technique could stand up to her. If you ask other photographers, you bet some of them will be able to find 'defects' in lots of actually great shots, like the 'defects' I mentioned earlier. But those are not really defects, they are just a lack of conformance to mainstream aesthetical standards, and those standards only define what is a more immediately likeable photograph and what is not, they don't define what is a good photograph.
That's why mentioning those 'defects' won't help you much. What will help you is knowing how much the picture conveys how you see this girl, and what you feel for her (and how much it doesn't). And that, only you, the photographer, can answer.
I can only answer that the photo looks good to me!
Thanks very much, Thiago!
Yes, I find her a bit bewitching although I had never really met her before the wedding. That said, she could well be my granddaughter! (aren't all granddaughters bewitcing?) The shot is actually a fairly heavy crop and I was using on camera flash with a mini-softbox.
At any rate, I greatly appreciate you looking and taking the time to offer your critique. Thank you very much!
Busch
Take the scenic route. Life is too short to do otherwise.
Comments
I think there's a lot to like about your photo, really. Perhaps I'm biased, I dunno, but I never find portraits boring or repetitive.
Back to the topic: you have a very pretty model, her face, eyes and smile are lovely, and I'm pretty partial to tight framing as well, and like how you framed her face with her hair and all. So I like pretty much the whole shot.
Now, I also think there's a bit too much neck in your shot, and if it was my shot, I'd probably crop the bottom off, turning it into more of a square picture. To me, it looks more balanced that way, with her pair of eyes and her smile pretty much on the thirds of the frame.
But hey, perhaps that's just the fact I'm pretty much seeing squares everywhere now that I bought a square-format camera, who knows? And also, rules like the rule of thirds usually contribute more to making pictures more 'likeable' than actually good, so take these with a grain of salt.
Other people would probably tell you that they'd like to see more resolution on the shot, you know, more definition on her hair, things like that. Some other people would tell you that lighting is flat, that they'd like to see more shadow areas to give volume to her face, which would be achieved by off-camera lighting and so on.
I think you did pretty great with what you had, which was probably on-camera flash or something like that.
It all boils down to this: you probably like this girl a lot or at least find her really pretty, that's probably why you said you wish your technique could stand up to her. If you ask other photographers, you bet some of them will be able to find 'defects' in lots of actually great shots, like the 'defects' I mentioned earlier. But those are not really defects, they are just a lack of conformance to mainstream aesthetical standards, and those standards only define what is a more immediately likeable photograph and what is not, they don't define what is a good photograph.
That's why mentioning those 'defects' won't help you much. What will help you is knowing how much the picture conveys how you see this girl, and what you feel for her (and how much it doesn't). And that, only you, the photographer, can answer.
I can only answer that the photo looks good to me!
Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Take care!
-- thiago
Yes, I find her a bit bewitching although I had never really met her before the wedding. That said, she could well be my granddaughter! (aren't all granddaughters bewitcing?) The shot is actually a fairly heavy crop and I was using on camera flash with a mini-softbox.
At any rate, I greatly appreciate you looking and taking the time to offer your critique. Thank you very much!
Take the scenic route. Life is too short to do otherwise.