I think maybe more hand and arm in the shot if it is an important part of the pose. The light is lovely and I think the eyes closed are intriguing because it makes me wonder what you are thinking about :)
I'm with @cazink about the hand and arm - I find myself wanting to see the hand (the way I'm imagining it, the hand is gripping the hair a bit more roughly). Don't have to see all of the hand, just more of it. I also think some of the skin tone is too light and some detail is lost on the cheeks and mid-forehead. I'd like the neck to be slightly darker than the face, so that the neck doesn't try to steal attention, also possibly crop some more of the neck away just a tad.
Jocelyn, I'm far from a practiced portrait photographer, but here's my 10 penneth.
For my taste the lighting is a fraction too strong. The hand neck and face are a little too bright and resultantly 2d for my liking. I'd like some more tone to give it a bit of dimension.
Something about the shadow cast under the nose bothers me a little in contrast to the general tone. I think I'd have had a dull fill light just to lessen this shadow a little.
I agree with Sheridan about the neck needing to be a bit darker than the face, and cropping the lower edge, so perhaps the only way to actually reduce that contrast with the shadow under the nose is to reduce overall light intensity a bit.
I don't really mind the crop on the right hand edge, I don't find myself wanting too see any more there, but I'd have liked the whole frame shifted up a bit, less neck and more of the fingers.
Overall I do think it's a very nice Image though, well done.
Again by no means a pro at this stuff like yourself but as the other guys have said I think the neck is to dominant in the shot. It almost looks a little artificial against the jaw-line.
As for the hand I like it but needs to be more visable. Its almost like the shot needs moving upwards to show more hand and less neck.
Makeup is great on the eyes and having them closed gives something a little different.
I am guessing that this shot has been photoshoped a little?
You know i'm a big believer of your selfies but you've definately done better than this :) Correct me if i'm wrong but it looks like you're using a single light pretty much straight on with what looks to be a beauty dish or going bare bulb and the camera is a little lower than head height.
My likes here :
1. Makeup. Its a nice and applied to the cheeks to give a nice enhancement although i'm not 100% sold on the lip colour / gloss matching with your eye makeup and the mood of the image
2. Expression.
3. Chin - beautifully cut jaw line here
My dislikes :
1. The lighting doesnt match the mood you're trying to evoke here. The lighting's very harsh but what you're trying to show is more subtle. I'd have gone with a bigger softbox dialed down a bit or push your aperture up to F5.6 or F8 to make it slightly moodier. That said i'd have gone with dialing down as this would still give you a shallow DoF. Also, if it is a beauty dish that you're using i think you're not getting the full benefit of putting yourself in the sweet spot and allowing the light falloff to give you a natural vignette.
2. Hair. Its covering your shoulders and in effect elongating your neck making it look crazy. For this shoot maybe just it all over one shoulder so that we can see a shoulder and let our mind fill in the blanks or just have it down your back.
2. By cropping in so close portrait, your hand and neck look a little out of place - its emphasesed because you have makeup on your face but not on your hand or neck so they have a different tone.
I've have liked to see a cropped shot landscape to add a little negative space left / right of your head
3. It looks to me like the skin smoothing's a little too aggressive - especially around the top right of your forehead near the wisps of hair. Its caused spreading of the hair colour and darkening to the skin around it
the other things i'd have liked to do if i were shooting.
1. Tilt your head a little to the side
2. Part your lips a little until when you blow out, you can just feel the wind going over your lips. You'll get a bit more of a natural look to your mouth
Hope this helps and as always, please take my critque with a pinch of salt as I may be totally off base :)
I would agree with the comments about the light being too strong and the neck being too long/prominent in the photo. I almost want to put on a pair of sunglasses as I look at the image (and that's from someone who is routinely teased about being about as white-skinned as a person can be without being officially an albino). The cropped-off fingers wouldn't be a distraction for me IF there wasn't jewelry on the hand, but because that is so severely cropped out of the frame, not showing more of the hand bothers me.
Also, over-Photoshopping bothers me. Absolutely no one has skin this "perfect" unless they are made out of plastic. So the processed-into-unreality quality of the skin doesn't work for me, either.
I like the expression and eye make-up, but I find the skin too airbrushed, it looks flat. The hand also bothers me a bit... I'd say all out or more in.
Other than that it's very pretty.
@sjoblues@victorypuzzle incidentally as you start overexposing an image, you'll see lines etc get obliterated. I hear its actually used a bit in the "glamour photo" business :)
@sjoblues from looking at her other photos which are SOOC, I fear that she truly does have absolutely gorgeous skin, and I just don't remember when it was that perfect in my mirror :)
I like the skin tones and the makeup, the light is not too strong for me and your skin is perfect. Very interesting capture. If I would critique anything, I would say I would have preferred to have seen your eyes open as you have beautiful eyes.
Great shot except for the hand. It is very awkwardly cropped. Either show more or nothing at all. Lighting is superb. Very beautiful otherwise. Also, I might have used a reflector to get the shadow a bit out from under the chin and lower the exposure just a tad to bring out more of the richness in the skin tones.
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For my taste the lighting is a fraction too strong. The hand neck and face are a little too bright and resultantly 2d for my liking. I'd like some more tone to give it a bit of dimension.
Something about the shadow cast under the nose bothers me a little in contrast to the general tone. I think I'd have had a dull fill light just to lessen this shadow a little.
I agree with Sheridan about the neck needing to be a bit darker than the face, and cropping the lower edge, so perhaps the only way to actually reduce that contrast with the shadow under the nose is to reduce overall light intensity a bit.
I don't really mind the crop on the right hand edge, I don't find myself wanting too see any more there, but I'd have liked the whole frame shifted up a bit, less neck and more of the fingers.
Overall I do think it's a very nice Image though, well done.
As for the hand I like it but needs to be more visable. Its almost like the shot needs moving upwards to show more hand and less neck.
Makeup is great on the eyes and having them closed gives something a little different.
I am guessing that this shot has been photoshoped a little?
My likes here :
1. Makeup. Its a nice and applied to the cheeks to give a nice enhancement although i'm not 100% sold on the lip colour / gloss matching with your eye makeup and the mood of the image
2. Expression.
3. Chin - beautifully cut jaw line here
My dislikes :
1. The lighting doesnt match the mood you're trying to evoke here. The lighting's very harsh but what you're trying to show is more subtle. I'd have gone with a bigger softbox dialed down a bit or push your aperture up to F5.6 or F8 to make it slightly moodier. That said i'd have gone with dialing down as this would still give you a shallow DoF. Also, if it is a beauty dish that you're using i think you're not getting the full benefit of putting yourself in the sweet spot and allowing the light falloff to give you a natural vignette.
2. Hair. Its covering your shoulders and in effect elongating your neck making it look crazy. For this shoot maybe just it all over one shoulder so that we can see a shoulder and let our mind fill in the blanks or just have it down your back.
2. By cropping in so close portrait, your hand and neck look a little out of place - its emphasesed because you have makeup on your face but not on your hand or neck so they have a different tone.
I've have liked to see a cropped shot landscape to add a little negative space left / right of your head
3. It looks to me like the skin smoothing's a little too aggressive - especially around the top right of your forehead near the wisps of hair. Its caused spreading of the hair colour and darkening to the skin around it
the other things i'd have liked to do if i were shooting.
1. Tilt your head a little to the side
2. Part your lips a little until when you blow out, you can just feel the wind going over your lips. You'll get a bit more of a natural look to your mouth
Hope this helps and as always, please take my critque with a pinch of salt as I may be totally off base :)
Also, over-Photoshopping bothers me. Absolutely no one has skin this "perfect" unless they are made out of plastic. So the processed-into-unreality quality of the skin doesn't work for me, either.
Other than that it's very pretty.
:)
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SOOC