Julieta

[Javier]

[lovelife65]

Interesting model and pose but she looks just too plastic for me. Take what I say with a grain of salt as I am not a professional photographer nor do I do many protraits

[xpatUSA]

Interesting model and pose but she looks just too plastic for me.

You have a good eye, Sharon.

The problem is that the DOF in the shot is far too narrow, IMO. See the front of the hat where only a portion is in acceptable focus. That means that the whole face is out-of-focus including the all-important eyes.

[DanK]

it's really hard to tell at this size, and the EXIF has been stripped, so one can't see the aperture. But it looks like part of the hat front and the lace at the neck are both in focus, so the eyes should be.

I agree that it looks too smooth, but I wonder if that is from over-processing the face.

[Geoff F]

Everything looks much sharper in the Lightbox view.

Rather subtle colours. Was that a deliberate intention Javier? Anyway, I rather like it and it reminds me of those Victorian images and pottery etc.

[Round Tuit]

This is a lovely portrait Javier. At the size presented I don't see a problem with the focus or the depth of field. The only suggestion that I would offer would be to give her a little bit more room on the sides.

[Manfred M]

Your model looks great and has a beautiful outfit, but as the others have said, the skin is far too smooth to look realistic. Skin has texture and should not look like a plastic doll. I also agree with the comment about the image feeling cramped; more space on both the left and right hand sides would improve the shot.

My final comment is about the lighting. It is extremely flat and uninteresting. For shots like this, we want to see some light shadows that help define the face (cheek bones) and a bit more on the side of the nose. You've given her an unnecessarily round looking face. This is more reminiscent of lighting used in a passport and passport images rarely make the subject look attractive.

Look up "loop lighting" and try to create that little bit of shadow using your model's nose. If you study the work of Annie Liebovitz, who is considered the premiere portrait photographer right now, you see a lot of loop lighting in her work. It works very well for this type of shot. Your light needs to be higher up and pointing down at your model for this to work. It might have to go further to the right as well.

You will probably also want to look up "short lighting"' shooting from the shadow side (and I am looking at a light shadow, with the light being no more than 1 stop darker on the left side of the face). That will also be more effective in this shot, I think.