Bri

[EOBeav]

Hi everybody, just wanted your general thoughts about this portrait, especially regarding crop, exposure, post production, and anything else you think is pertinent to the discussion. Is the contrast between the dark wood and the much lighter stone wall too distracting? Do you see anything that might have improved this shot?

Taken at a local winery on a slow day, so we were able to get some nice portrait shots in. I've got the rest of the shots on my flickr stream.



EXIF:
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.4

[zona5101]

I'm not sure all the extra space is helping this image. The leading left edge appears to be the brightest part of the picture and was the first area I noticed, then the massive door...and then the girl. The exposure on the subject looks fine, a bit hot on the left edge but the face appears well lit. Eyes may be a bit racoonish but hard to evaluate in this particular crop. Her pose seems to teeter between casual and sloppy placing emphasis on the lines of the shirt & size of the thigh when those are not really what we want to emphasize. I think a 3/4 crop of the subject only would make a much stronger image.

[EOBeav]

Thanks for the helpful comments, Zona. Since that doorway was recessed, I had wondered if that was going to create some exposure problems, and I was right. Posing is something I really need to work on. Most of the poses for this shoot were actually her idea and better than anything I had in mind.

I will be posting more portraits from this shoot (one per day, of course). One of these will end up at grandma's, so we'll make our decision after we've had more feedback.