Portrait, Tree2

Hi DwayneF, thank you for allowing me to critique your photo! For your first portrait you certainly didn't do a bad job. You have a lovely subject and captured a sincere emotion from her, and your image is exposed well. You clearly know how to operate your camera and make your subjects comfortable being photographed by you. One idea might be to have your model face her body to the side a bit and have her look back towards the camera; in my personal opinion a model almost always looks better when they aren't facing the camera directly. That slight pose adjustment makes the shot just a little more interesting and flattering to your subject. Another thing to consider is the rule of thirds. In this shot, the frame seems to be split in two; one half of the shot is tree trunk which very quickly pulls focus away from your subject, and the other half of the frame contains your subject and the background. You could crop the shot so one third of it contains tree trunk, one third contains the subject, and one third contains the background. The same goes for the vertical framing as well; there is a lot of negative space above your model's head, so you could crop it down so there is still a little bit of space above her head but not nearly as much as what there is now. I hope that made sense, and I hope this critique helps!