New Fashion photog

[DramaDork626]

Did ya miss me folks?
This was shot with a canon powershot, done via natural lighting.
Actually, the ligthing is what I would like some opinions on. And any other tidbits

 

[The_Traveler]

IMO, this content is too difficult for the lighting. You have a high dynamic range in the sunlight coming through the blinds and a black cat that needs lot of light poured on it to show any detail. The sunny stripes on her hat are burnt out and the cat is still a dark blob. I think it needs softer light and more of it.

STOP READING IF YOU ONLY WANT TO READ COMMENTS ON THE LIGHTING
Additionally, IMO the composition is off. The very interesting part of this image is the parallel expressions on the girl and the cat. The picture includes lots of other, irrelevant and distracting stuff. I would have cropped this picture to a landscape including only as much of the cat and her face as possible in a standard 4 x 5 format.

Since you have not indicated that you allow editing I have sent you a suggested crop by pm

 

[midnitejam]

I agree with the majority of The_Traveler's comments, but I also like your shot. It wasn't presented as a professional portrait that was created in a professional studio and I wouldn't judge it by those standards. Despite several faults, it also has several strong points. A fill flash would have helped to save detail in the girl's eyes.

As a candid and an amature character portrait, I think it flies very well. It has an interresting subject. I like the composition. I like the pose. The expressions of both the cat and the girl creates a relationship within the comp. I'm particularly fond of the axis of the eyes being on the diagonal and located near one of the ROT's intersections. I like how the detail in the supporting cat element has subdued is subdued so as not to compete too strongly with the main subject. I like the bokeh DOF.

In general terms, I think your image was a very good effort.