Portrait of my friend

[thebiologist]

I've been at this photography thing for a little over a year and this is my first post of a photo or any post in general. Being a student and working, I try to find as much time as possible for this stuff but it's not going as well as I would like. All thoughts, subjective or objective, what you like/don't like, are welcome.

Camera: D90 with 35mm 1.8
F: 2.8
Shutter: 1/125s
ISO: 250
Flash off to the left.

[zona5101]

Hi and welcome
Nice first post!
So the first things that comes to mind are the objects on the wall. For example, it's generally a good idea to not have object emerge from the subjects head. Usual culprits are trees and telephone poles but picture frames can be equally guilty. Also the partial frame in the upper right and the wall decor to the left can go...maybe crop them out? The change in crop may also help to reposition the subject relative to the frame so she is less centered. Seeing that she is looking off to the right, placing her to the left of the frame and expanding the space on the right to give her an area to look into would be pretty classic framing. Lastly the color balance looks a bit off toward the greenish yellow of fluorescent lighting so a bit of post color balancing might help. I loke the pose and I think your exposure is just about spot on.