Dear Cynthia,

Thank  you for visiting critique, you have a nice model and light in this shot. There isn't much in your portfolio yet, but from what I see you're experimenting and trying out genres. I tend to be pretty frank and skip the charming words, pleae don't consider me mean. I just focus on things that can be potentially improved. As always, a matter of taste.

I find the crop a bit tight, I would at least not have cropped her(!) left shoulder in this. Her face would move more to the middle, your take has a better composition, slightly off-center. But there will be ways.

In my view, the weakset aspect in this is her pose. She does not interact with the dandelion, her "far away" view looks staged, as her right hand isn't playful with her hair, it's just included. To be honest, her hand pose looks like she observed something stupid and taps her head. Thats for sure nt the impression you wnated to convey, and probably you see it differently. 

Her face is pretty wide. The thing with model photography is that it's the photographers job to have a vision, direct the model, and the outcome should convey the mood you had in mind, respecting the look and talent of your model. Don't get me wrong, she's a beautiful lady, but any pose where you shoot her face  more from the side would work better. 

IN my experience most models don't mind if you alter  reality a bit, as long as it's still them in your final photograph. So I played with some proportions of her face, including eye size, and sharpened the yes because focus was a tack off. You may even have focused the hand and most of her face was still in focus. Just the eyes appear slightly blurred, just a bit. 

I toned down her arm a bit, because it's brighter than her face, which distracts. Apart from her white clothing, the face should be the brightest element, especially in black and white yiou should pay attention to tones. 

So here's my take on your photograph, a 5 minute edit roughly:

Best regards,

Mike

Mike, Thank you so much for taking the time giving me your suggestions. I am new to 1X. I am so impressed at how hard the senior critics works, even on the weekend. Thank you for all the helpful advice! I really appreciate it! -Cynthia

Dose uploading high resolution image and including the settings of the camera increase the chance of being published or awarded?Thanks!

Hi Cynthia,

The critics are all volunteers, not 1x staff. The reason we work on weekends.  

Nice to see you found this little "extra-world" on 1x and appreciate our doings!

Cheers,

Mike 

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks for sharing your image with us. I believe you have created a good composition for a portrait but the only feedback I will share is sharpness. The eyes must be in focus. As I notice the focus is at the strap of the dress of model not at the eye. I recommend to continue shooting portraits having the focus at the center of the eye. 

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Enis