Paulina

[Snow]

Snow the first image is actually very nice...nice smile, good face...nice pose. The only thing that was wrong with it was the white handle of the umbrella...it can easily be cloned out in PP. The second one looks like a forced smile and the umbrella overhead is so distracting. If you clone out the white umbrella at the top, you are left with??? I would suggest you work on the first image first... like this:
This is just a suggestion...I will remove it if you do not want it. I just did a quick edit because I like her pose here...

Thank you, Izzie. Your cloning skills are good.. I tried doing that, but unfortunately, my cloning abilities leave a lot to be desired. I appreciate your taking the time to do this. You don't have to remove it; it's fine. Don't worry about it.

[Manfred M]

Thank you, Manfred. I appreciate your taking the time to help.

No problem; we are all here to learn and help.

You have the basics down; it's probably time for you to play around with your shots to see what works for you and what does not. My opinion is just that, and there is no right or wrong answer here. It depends on what you are trying to do and what you want your final results to look like.

To quote the famed photographer, the late Robert Capa; "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough". That's sort of where I was trying to go with this series, but only you can determine that.

If you want to look at how others do head shots; I suggest a quick trip tp Peter Hurley's website. He's probably the master of the head shot. http://peterhurley.com/

If you are interested in portraiture, have a look at how Yousef Karsh handled this genre. He is generally considered to be the best portrait photographer of all time. http://www.karsh.org/

[Snow]

Thanks for the links, Manfred. I will check them out.