Recent senior session

[jasontisha]

Ey guys, this is one from one of my recent senior sessions. What do you think? I'm looking for some CC?

 

[Designer]

camera position too high
horizontal format
could use some additional light on her face

 

[KmH]

Yep. All the above.

The horizontal framing is also called Landscape or Cinematographic framing. Turning the camera 90° to use a vertical frame is also known as Portrait framing.
By using a vertical/portrait frame you increase subject scale in the frame and minimize background distractions.
Understanding Camera Metering and Exposure

Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera

Direction & Quality of Light: Your Key to Better Portrait Photography Anywhere
Light Science and Magic. 4th Edition - An Introduction to Photographic Lighting
Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It: Learn Step by Step How to Go from Empty Studio to Finished Image (Voices That Matter)
Photographic Lighting Equipment: A Comprehensive Guide for Digital Photographers
Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography

Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide for Digital Photographers
Doug Box's Guide to Posing for Portrait Photographers
Beyond Portraiture: Creative People Photography

Photo Lighting

• Making the Most of Natural Light in Photography (NEW)
• Portrait Lighting with One Light: Introduction
• Portrait Lighting with Two Lights: Fill Light
• Specialty Lights: Background, kickers, hair, rim, etc.
• Overall: Studio Portrait Lighting Styles & Diagrams

Composition

• The Rule of Thirds

 

[Derrel]

camera position too high
horizontal format
could use some additional light on her face

A cute, young female in a sundress, in a field of grasses and flowers; a GREAT start, but the dappled backlighting is really hurting the final shot. Her eyes are dark and lack sparkle; there's a blotch of sunlight right on the tip of her nose. What would really ,have helped is one, or two things. Those things would be a large reflector, and a sizeable "scrim", or sunlight diffusing frame and fabric. Even turning her more into the sunlight's direction could have helped alleviate the dappled light effect.

Even just propping the large reflector on the ground, just out of camera view, would have helped a lot with the lighting on her face.

With an assistant holding a scrim ABOVE and off to the side of her, you could have thrown her face into smoother, more-even shade, and then opened up the lens, and thus made the flowers lighter, and very bright and dreamy-looking.