It's nice, and I'm no expert in portraits but for some reason, I just can't focus on her face and my eyes keep darting around the image.
A couple of things strike me; first and foremost, her face is significantly under-exposed, and as Raj mentions, there's a lack of an 'anchor'. A couple of reasons for this: One is that you have a large, very bright area in the background, and the human eye is always more attracted to bright than dark, and two the sharply focused, geomtetric pattern on her sweater... the human eye always wants to follow lines. Both of these elements combine to produce an image where the viewer is being dragged everywhere but where he should be looking. If you increased the exposure on her face, burned the background, and applied some subtle blur to her sweeater, you'd have a whole new image.
Spend an hour trying to achieve what you told me and came to this version.. Do you think it's better now? Thanks. Autumn Beauty - Mark 2 by Bruno Caetano on 500px.com
I'm no portrait expert either but.... I think that fact she is not looking towards me (because she is ignoring me and I don't blame her ) keeps me from being drawn in. She probably has wonderful eyes that would look great if she was turned a bit towards (ME). Otherwise, maybe getting a true profile from the same angle and leaving much more space. I'm thinking the same shot, with her looking straight up so I don't see her left eye, and from a considerable distance further away (more leaves in the foreground). Just my $0.02
The changes you made definitely do a much better job to draw the eye to her face. I like the new version much better than the first but find the background right behind/above her face is overly bright.
Thank you all for your comments that really help me improve my skills. I'm pretty sure that the next time will be better
I think she is on such a slant that it is difficult even to get a good look at her (and she is a bit cold.)
Not trying to be funny here at all, and perhaps I've been watching too many British murder mysteries and police dramas, but my first reaction was that it looked like a crime scene photo. The pose doesn't work for me at all, and I think the distracting light and underexposed face add to the documentary or journalistic style of the photo.
