portrait from a non portrait photographer

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I am not a portrait photographer, but my friend said she wanted one for her friend in africa. CandC welcome
lexi.jpg
 
The fact that both her head and chin are cut off ruin the picture. Looks like just a quick snap shot to me, not a portrait.
 
Nice smile and good eye contact. I don't mind the head cut off on top, but I'm not so sure about cutting her chin off. I'd also prefer a cleaner background.
 
I don't mind chopping heads anywhere :)

I mind not having any light in the eyes
 
I mind not having any light in the eyes

Agreed, more light in the eyes, different, cleaner background (I am always guilty of this too), no crop to the head or chin
 
Looks like it was shot at a really wide angle and has some unflattering distorsion. I don't mind the top of hear head being cropped but I don't like the chin being cropped
 
I am not a portrait photographer, but my friend said she wanted one for her friend in africa. CandC welcome

What everyone is saying is valid... if the intent is to have a traditional "Studio Portrait".

I don't do studio portraits myself. I do a lot of People Pictures though, and have been for 50 years.

Your shot isn't a studio portrait style photograph, and at the opposite end of the spectrum for people pictures it isn't Street Photography either. It's one of those inbetween things. It's a portrait for sure because the subject specifically is the person. But you seem to want a little of the environment for context, and it's also clear this is meant to show the subject's character. It does that extremely well in a very artistic manner.

As to the framing: "Art is the elimination of the unnecessary." And I would challenge as to what is missing that is necessary! The cropped parts aren't necessary. And while the background is just enough there to provide environmntal context, it is blurred enough to reduce the dominance sufficiently that it is not a distraction.

The lighting of the face is fabulous, at least for what I like. Maybe nobody else does, but I just love the unbalanced nature of the eyes, with one much more prominent that the other.

Technically a photograph is a means of communicating a concept into the mind of a viewer, and compositionally this image restricts entropy in the structure of the visual symbols to a reasonable amount. The effects of the compositional choices made are that it becomes a very interesting, rather than a bland, image that clearly describes the character of the young lady pictured. What else is there???


The quote about what art is, is interesting. The guy who said that was once asked "What is art?" and answered "What isn't?"
Pablo Picasso.
 
eyes are soft, braces are sharp.

back up and try again.
 
eyes are soft, braces are sharp.

back up and try again.

I think it's a little more complicated than that. The eyes have more fine detail and the smile has more single edge tone transitions. Hence the eyes would benefit from a high pass sharpen tool and the mouth from use of Unsharp Mask. Also the mouth will get more "sharpening" from the ringing effects of using a bicubic filter to resample the image for web presentation, and it looks like that may have been the type of downsizing tool used.

Hence I think what it needs is "appropriate" sharpening after it is downsized.

Regardless, you are correct that it could be better processed assuming the OP actually wants the eyes to equal the smile in attracting a viewer's attention. Personally, I wouldn't want them equal, but would tend toward attraction to that one eye. Some might like the eye to be a little less attractive than the mouth... matter of style.
 
possibly. the uploaded image is very low quality and full of artifacts and compression.
 
I am not a portrait photographer, but my friend said she wanted one for her friend in africa. CandC welcome

What everyone is saying is valid... if the intent is to have a traditional "Studio Portrait".

I don't do studio portraits myself. I do a lot of People Pictures though, and have been for 50 years.

Your shot isn't a studio portrait style photograph, and at the opposite end of the spectrum for people pictures it isn't Street Photography either. It's one of those inbetween things. It's a portrait for sure because the subject specifically is the person. But you seem to want a little of the environment for context, and it's also clear this is meant to show the subject's character. It does that extremely well in a very artistic manner.

As to the framing: "Art is the elimination of the unnecessary." And I would challenge as to what is missing that is necessary! The cropped parts aren't necessary. And while the background is just enough there to provide environmntal context, it is blurred enough to reduce the dominance sufficiently that it is not a distraction.

The lighting of the face is fabulous, at least for what I like. Maybe nobody else does, but I just love the unbalanced nature of the eyes, with one much more prominent that the other.

Technically a photograph is a means of communicating a concept into the mind of a viewer, and compositionally this image restricts entropy in the structure of the visual symbols to a reasonable amount. The effects of the compositional choices made are that it becomes a very interesting, rather than a bland, image that clearly describes the character of the young lady pictured. What else is there???


The quote about what art is, is interesting. The guy who said that was once asked "What is art?" and answered "What isn't?"
Pablo Picasso.

= "Attaboy! great shot!"
 
I thought originally it may have been shot close with a 35mm but on exif check it was shot with a 28mm close up. This is not so flattering normally (of course your intention could be to have a slight distortion for effect) If using the same lens I would suggest re-taking from further back and cropping in post to your liking. Longer focal lengths generally are better for portraits, if you have a 50mm or so you could use that
 

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