Composition?

[clutch]

What could I have done to improve the composition on this portrait?



Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/350)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: +1/2 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

[LMAC2]

Great background, love the subject. I think having a bit more of her face would have been nice. Get down lower or have her look up more. Just a thought

[LeeR]

You got the basics right:
exposure: check
focus: check
DOF: check
Good choice of background: check
Good framing: excellent (her haird perfectly frames her face)

But on the finer points its a mixed bag:
subject not centered: no
used 'rule of thirds': no
made good use of leading lines: check

I am not a huge fan of 'the rule of thirds' but it's a good place to start and you need to know what you are doing if you venture beyond it. What it does well for most people is it helps them remember not to put the most important thing square in the middle. Generally speaking, the closer something is to the edge of the frame, the more interesting it becomes.
I see three lines leading to your subjects face. the edge of the sweater along her arm and shoulder forms one, the hair falling down her left shoulder forms another, the hair on her right side forms a third, so you are well above average here. Add to this the fact that you got a great expression on her face and catchlights in her eyes and you have a solid portrait. But you already knew that, didn't you?

[BigFuzzy]

In short, I agree with Lee on the composition part. I would have left a bit more of her body in the frame, putting her face in the upper right corner of the image... OR... go in really tight for the crop of her face... either or.

As you can see from this project I did, I very much like these types of images, and you did a great job with it being juuuust a bit off for me.

Keep it up!

[clutch]

Thanks for the input guys, I'm pretty new to portrait photography and I'm not really sure how to place everything. And those are some really great shots bigfuzzy!

And yes, Leer. Well, at least I thought it was pretty solid, I thought I would choose the best portrait from that session to be critiqued so I could only get better