General Critique my informal portraits please.

[thereyougo!]

Vintage,
I do that! Its great advice; meet Mother Goose,

About the rule of thirds, you asked why I did it, and I don't necessarily agree that its silly per say. I love Pi.
Thanks! Keep the insight coming I learned a lot today!

Tried to sneak a " portrait" mag into the cart at wallmart while getting some rechargeabkes for the flash, wifey found it and lol not hapenin.

Don't be a slave to the rule of thirds. It USUALLY works, but not always. The suggested crop by The_Traveler is a good one even if it does put her eyes fairly central, where she is looking is through the upper left third, and the black space draws the eye away.

 

[The_Traveler]

About the rule of thirds, you asked why I did it, and I don't necessarily agree that its silly per say. I love Pi.

I think you have this a bit backwards.
One doesn't compose a picture to put something on the thirds.
When composing, often it looks better when the important subject is neither on the margin nor in the center.
The first thing a viewer does is sift quickly through the content deciding what to look at, what is important and parsing the hints the placem,ent of items in the frame give.
Something in the center with lots of room around it, implies a symmetrical composition, which a closeup of a face usually isn't.
Something on the very margin is usually seen to be unimportant.
Strive for balance while paying attention to the sense of a picture; putting a subject's head on the thirds, but facing into the margin doesn't make sense to the viewer.
Know/learn how to use your viewer's built-in preconceptions to give your photos impact.
Following 'rules' blindly and routinely makes your photos routine.

 

[OGsPhotography]

Mostly until I received this light I was concerned with sharpness. I can go faster shutter now and worry more about composition!

Traveller
When I choose to put my focus point off centered on a " thirds", I suppose I am composing it around the rule in a way. I will place it ( the single focus) to the opposite side in a profile shot, on the thirds, and try that.
Thank you!

 

[Designer]

Mostly until I received this light I was concerned with sharpness. I can go faster shutter now and worry more about composition!

Traveller
When I choose to put my focus point off centered on a " thirds", I suppose I am composing it around the rule in a way. I will place it ( the single focus) to the opposite side in a profile shot, on the thirds, and try that.
Thank you!

I think you've missed the point. The way I read The_Traveller's post is for you to NOT DO THAT ANY MORE.

Anyway, something else for you to try: Just shoot it. Shoot wide. Edit later. If, while you're editing, you like the subject a bit off center, then that is when you can crop to your heart's content placing the important things in important places.

 

[OGsPhotography]

You dont need to yell. And I said thanks.

Be like Nike, just do it! Good advice, I thank you as well.

Im not mindlessly shooting, Im setting controls in manual, looking for good light, paying thousands of dollars on gear, reading books, taking classes, and getting yelled at on the internet cause I missed a point!
OG

 

[Designer]

Oh, golly, I sure hope you don't consider my post the last word on this.

It is a fault of mine to try to condense writing into a simple phrase. I hope I didn't' insult you.

If The_Traveler wrote it too gentle, then I wrote it too harshly. Sorry.