portraits attempt two feed back please

[sanphotography]

[Donald]

Sandra

As I say endlessly, I'm no portraitist so am not well qualified to comment. Hopefully others will come in to do so.

On the first one, the problem for me stems from the fact that you have her sitting in a position whereby her legs are pointing straight at us. That means that her legs are closer to us than her face and the effect of that is to make them look relatively larger than they perhaps are. Coupled with that, the shoes she has on seem to have gone totally to black.

The result of those factors, for me, is that the image is dominated by her from the waist down rather than where we should be drawn to - her face.

Don't know whether you would agree with that analysis or not. What do you think?

[Andrew1]

Don is 100% correct on the first one. Kneecaps larger than a face distorts the view. For the second one, the green wall on the left of the shot detracts from the photo and adds nothing. For a portrait, have the model look at the camera for more personal results. She's is looking up at an angle we don't normally do to that extreme. Your focus or crop should be up a bit higher but just enough to keep her hair in at the bottom. Your high point of focus along with a too heavy of a vignette makes it look as though the necklace was your subject. For the third one, being blown out on the right and no detail on the left shows you correctly metered off of the eyes. I feel a better result would have been to use a reflector to your left in order to highlight her hair and face. You would get enough light on the hair and face that you drop your exposure to get a lighter effect from the sun. Again, too heavy on the vignette. Effects should not demand as much attention.

One thing to keep in mind that the final decision on any photo rests with the person the photo is for. You and your model may love these shots and that's what is important. The rest of us really don't matter and can only offer our opinion on what we like and suggestions on how to make it that way. I try to learn things every day and some may change my opinion as well. Variety! That's what makes this hobby interesting.

2 cents.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Sandra,

For me, the third is spoiled by the distracting bold pattern on her dress/top.

Other than that, Donald and Andrew have covered enough.

Hope it helps,

[sanphotography]

Dave, Donald and Andrew1 thanks very much for the feed back you pointed out some very good points which did not stand out to me but i'm only learning so all your feed back is much appreciated and hopefully attempt 3 will be better

[Geoff F]

Not sure what type of effect you were looking for here, Sandra, but to me those models look a little 'stern and forbidding'. As though they were putting a lot of effort into posing.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Sandra,

In addition to what the others have mentioned the BIG thing that TOTALLY distracts my eyes is the SANDRA BRENNON PHOTOGRAPHY 2012 blazened across the bottom of each. No easy way to say this Sandra (!) ... it needs to go ... in its entirety.