Autumn portraits.

[Line of Best Fit]

C&C would be really great guys. This is my first portrait shoot, so please be gentle.

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[rubbertree]

overall, very nice. I think you cropped a little too close in several.
#1, leave a little more of her body in the lower section.
#2 it's cropped a little too close on the left side
#3 pretty good, needs a little more saturation in the colors. Notice how her hair doesn't match the others, and the fall colors are not as vibrant as the others.
#4 too close, she looks almost cross eyed here.
#5 pretty nice, the sky is really blown out though. Was it a grey day? not much you can do there.
#6 is a little underexposed, at least her face is. I'd crop out the leaves on the right side. They are what's in focus and it's a little distracting and takes away from her. Otherwise her pose is fantastic.

 

[tirediron]

Rubbertree makes some excellent points in his critique above, all of which with, I agree, and to which I'll add the following three points.

1. Take charge of your subject; this may seem obvious, but you have to tell people where to look. In only one of these images (# 5) is she looking at the camera. In the rest of them I'm left trying to see what she's looking at.

2. Backgrounds & DoF. You've got some potentially good backgrounds here, nice colourful leaves, but your excessive DoF has rendered almost all of them to sharply focused (Esp 1, 2, 3, & 6) which results in the eye having to decide what to look at. Two things here; shoot with a larger aperture and put more distance between the subject and the background. If you have a telephoto, you can move farther back yourself and shoot with that, since long glass has a much narrower DoF than wide glass.

3. Eyes. You've got great focus on the eyes, just the way it should be, BUT in only two images (1, 2) do you have any catchlights. In the rest her eyes look flat. A small reflector would have been ideal and also helped balance out some of your exposures.

Overall, it's good work. You've got some good poses, and the majority of your technical work is good, just in need of a little polishing. Looking forward to more.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

 

[JaimeGibb]

1. Crop is off. Too much space above her head and too little below her chin. She is also looking to the left, and placed to the left. A better comp would be to leave room to the left, placing her on the right. When you off-center crop, always try to place the person opposite of where they are looking.

2. Again, too little space below her chin. This angle would probably work better if you had her whole body in the shot (get lower to the ground, on her level.) I like the color in this one though, number 1 looks washed out in comparison.

3. Best crop and composition. Good job. Id saturate the colors more.

4. I think you are too close. It's warping her face. Nice saturation though.

5. Underexposed. I love the colors and the peek over the shoulder. Maybe play around with it in photoshop?

6. I agree with rubbertree on this one.

Overall great first portraits!! Keep practicing, you will only get better!