C&C From Today

[BNHPhotography]

ISO 400 f5.6 1/500sec

I was, really, trying to stay away from shooting wide open, and i love the results!

Self critique: I know when you take a picture of two heads together it should be in portrait orientation, but i really like the way this one looks in landscape.
White balance is a little off

 

[Restomage]

Nice emotion that you have captured, white balance looks perfect to me. And there is no rule that says that a photo of two heads together should be in portrait orientation, there are no rules for a good photo. Here is a photo I took that demonstrates this:

Some comments on my end. I would try to create more creamy bokeh with more depth of field. The background is a bit distracting. Also I would go back in RAW and expose the image up about 1/4 stop.

 

[BNHPhotography]

Thanks for the info!
How's this:
Does it need more contrast? I feel like i try to over-do the contrasty-ness sometimes... =/

 

[Austin Greene]

Great photo! You did an excellent job capturing the emotion, and that does more for a photo than any amount of editing or compositional skills imo.

 

[BNHPhotography]

Thank you so much for the compliment! It means a lot to me coming from a fellow tpf member

 

[KenC]

I'd crop it tighter on the left. That would remove some unnecessary background and draw attention more to the faces.

 

[BNHPhotography]

You are so right! It looks so much better with the trees cropped out!
Anyone have any other suggestions? Feel free to edit my picture as well, I'm here to learn all I can!

 

[KmH]

Some fill lighting would have been nice. The main issues with shooting head shots in landscape is the reduction in subject scale in the frame, and landscape allows other distracting elements into the photo.

While true there are no rules like Restomage mentioned, over a couple of thousand years worth of doing visual image composition trial and error, it has been shown that following certain guidelines is more likely to produce a visual image that appeals to a great number of people.

I recommend cropping it square:

 

[MReid]

Nice portrait, I would not mess with the original.
You caught a nice moment.

 

[BNHPhotography]

Thank KMH! That was basically my same edit with just a touch more of his hat cut off the top!

 

[KmH]

All I did was the crop and add a thin black border.
Their skin tones are to red. SmugMug | How to get pleasing skin tone

You really need to work on your use of light, which helps the skin tones.