30 Birthday shoot

idiotabroad

She's always on my back about having her photos done. Well happy 30th bday.

lizzard_nyc

Hi there,
i'm not really a portrait photographer, though I have done a couple recently.
So here is what I see.
Looks a little dark to me, I wish there was a litle more light on her face.
The pose doesn't really work, kind of stiff and awkward, I say this because I just had the exact same pose on a shoot from yesterday, so I cropped the bent arm out right to her face, but I shot in landscape orientation and so had more room to play with on the otherside so it wouldn't be too tight a crop.
I have read this here several times and I know it works from seeing shots of me like this. I think shooting from a level slightly above the model would be more flattering, then straight on and even worse from below.

I like her skin work, you left the beauty marks and she doesn't look completely plastic, sometimes it's easy to get carried away with airbrushing.
My 25 cents

heatherfeather

She has some killer eyes... look at all those colors in them! When preparing to shoot someone, always look for their strengths and show them. In this case, I think it is her eyes. Shoot from slightly above and have her tip her head back so some of that yummy natural light can get into them and show them off.

The main thing with her pose is that her neck is scrunched back, giving her the mother of all double chins. Get her to poke her chin forward (think of a chicken pecking haha!) and it would have given her jaw a more prominent line. Also, probably 1/5th of the photo is taken up with her armpit. Not flattering at all.

I echo Liz about shooting from a different angle, and about her needing brightened up.

I would offer a reshoot, so you can practice finding her beauty. It is there. But I don't think this photo capitalizes on it.