Waterfront portrait

[yangsimo]

I haven't been able to take a good portrait but here's a shot from a while back. I've read a lot about composition in a portrait yet I find it hard to actually follow the rule of thirds sometimes. Especially outdoors, I feel it's difficult to exclude certain distractions from the scene.

Can I get some comments about this one? How can the composition be improved? I'm simply going for a straightforward upper-body portrait. Also, it was a VERY sunny day so seems like overexposure might have been a problem?

Thanks in advance

Camera: Nikon D40
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 60 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: -1/3 EV
Flash: No Flash

[yangsimo]

No one? Please help give your opinion

[jax314]

Overall, I think it is pretty good. I think the composition is good....you probably should have used fill flash to get rid of the shadows on the face, but I don't find them too distracting. Also, maybe you could have blurred the background a bit more to isolate your subject a bit more....I find my eyes wandering towards the top. Of course, I'm new myself, but I think it is pretty good overall.

[Obijuan]

Blur...too much. Makes my eyes focus in and out.

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by yangsimo

I haven't been able to take a good portrait but here's a shot from a while back. I've read a lot about composition in a portrait yet I find it hard to actually follow the rule of thirds sometimes. Especially outdoors, I feel it's difficult to exclude certain distractions from the scene

One sample crop:

[yangsimo]

Thank you.

Yes, the blur was put on post-processing, something I'm very new at. I wanted the blur to smooth out the skin a bit but ended up blurring everything. I'm learning to use the adjustment brush now, is that what others would have used to smooth the skin and make everything else sharp?