First Impressions Ah - I pull another of your images, the luck of the draw. I gave this image a 5 in voting. First impressions, as best I recall were: a nice face which shows the eyes fairly well.
Photograph Information, Technicals & Composition Review The focus seems sharpest on her hair, which the lighting also helps, as it is strongest there. There is fairly good lighting in her left eye, but a more even spread across the face, or just a little more on the right, would have been better, for this style portrait, in my opinion. 1/15 shutter speed?, hmm... for a portrait, that's a long time to ask someone to stay still.
Compositionally, I think the eyes placed further up the frame and a tighter crop at the top of her head/hair, would have allowed more balance. I think there's also room to take some off the left side of the frame, despite the fairly good negative space use.
I don't mind the framing so much, but not sure it is enhancing her features, especially her eyes. Although it does look like you've made an effort to try to pick up and use the color of her eyes.
It would be nice to see this young lady with a little more subtle make up - remembering that the photograph will pick up every little flaw. The mascara seems a bit 'clagged'.
The natural light is nice, but giving a little direction to your subject, especially to work with the light better and allow it to highlight her various features, including by experimenting with angles and poses, may have produced something a little stronger. There are overexposed areas on the face, so adjusting your exposure levels and/or adjusting the position to the light, would have helped there.
The background seems very dull and uninteresting and with the somewhat muted colors, blends in all the more. Minor, but her t-shirt softened to not be so noticeable may have also helped a little.
Comments, Score & Placement Review 346/419 seems a bit harsh for the image, I think it has good potential and you are on the right track. 5.13 is an ok score, especially in a Free Study.
You certainly got some extra-helpful comments during voting that provide excellent pointers for future use and learning.
Summary Good potential that may have been able to be tweaked in pp, but I think the main ingredients need to be had in camera at the time of shooting. You're on the right track, good luck with the next portrait. Experiment, experiment, experiment.
This could have been so much better, the expression is great, but the crop could have done with shifting down a touch to give a bit more space under the chin and cut out a little more of the top of the head. The worst part of this portrait is the lighting and colours though. There is a large hot spot on the right of the nose which means the light source was way to harsh. The colours seem all screwed up as well with a very yellow cast to the skin and very red on the left of the face (camera left). I would say that this was originally under exposured and the levels/brightness has been increased in Post Processing? this could have caused the blown out highlights on the nose and also pushing skin tones can make them very red. Lots of potential here but some major flaws IMHO. I hope this helps, PM me if you want more detail.
I hope some good portrait photographers have left you some helpful comments on this. For what it's worth I think the high lights on the side of her nose look blown, while the shadow under her right eye is unflattering. Some rim light on her hair on the right side would help her stand out from the BG. good luck
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