Alicia
by jodiecoston

Comment:
Lighting: The lighting is wonderful, but I would have liked to see more life in her eyes, that can be provided by a catchlight.
Pose: Sorry, with the pupils of her eyes covered by her eyelids she looks more asleep than posed. A beautiful model in a good composition, but the eyes are killing it for me.
Background: Using her hair as a background to frame her face is fabulous.

got twins?
by soniecat

Comment:
Lighting: Well balanced with strong spark of life from the catchlight.
Pose: The poses work well as they are each displaying their individuality in the face of the obvious similarities.
Background: Works well with the models. the only thing I would attempt to change would be to move the models and the background further apart to minimize the shadows.

Kate
by BobsterLobster

Comment:
Lighting: Lighting is good, and well balanced, with a catchlight giving a strong sense of interest in her eyes. The shadows could use a bit of lightening around the left eye, and the hair has lost some of its detail, but minor issues of personal taste.
Pose: The pose works. The shoulders work with the eyes to create a pair of leading lines that draw the attention.
Background: Nicely done.

Sheridan
by gajmaj

Comment:
Lighting: Beautifully done high-key. The only change I would consider would be a stronger catchlight, but I am not certain about that.
Pose: The pose is good, perhaps her head could be turned a bit more to her right, just enough to hide that ear is what I am thinking. Doing so would, I believe, allow the light to give the face better depth and make the left ear not quite so obvious. Very minor points to consider toward an image that works.
Background: What background? :)

Dreamer
by Nazgul

Comment:
Lighting: The lighting is nice and evenly distributed over what it is intended to be on. The only thing I would have changed would be to add a catchlight, the blue would have sparkled, giving the eyes a much needed spark of life.
Pose: Frankly I do not care for the expression or the hair to the right of her face. The expression does not say dreamer to me.
Background: The background is perfect. It is blurred out well, and matches her eyes.

Maraki
by Alexys

Comment:
Lighting: The light is well suited for the model, but it seems to come from directly over your head. This has caused rather strong shadows under the nose, lips and chin, and flattened out your models features. Using two lights, a strong one from one side and another, weaker, from the other to fill in the shadows slightly would have corrected this.
Pose: Her pose is pleasant, but again the perspective is from straight on. it is generally more flattering for the model for the perspective to be from slightly above her eye level. On a related note, a portrait should be of the person you are taking the photo of, having someone else in the shot is distracting, particularly when they are not fully in the shot and are blocking some of the light that would have been better used lighting your model (top of head).
Background: The background is nice, although it is a bit close as there are pronounced shadows visible on it.

Roger the Plumber
by biggood53

Comment:
Lighting: The heavy lighting coming only from his right is causing heavy shadows on his left side; so heavy the eye and features beside the nose are almost lost. A lower amp fill light (or reflector) on his left would have taken care of this, while a difuser on the main light would have been less harsh on his skin tones and prevent the near hot spot on his forhead. The catchlight in his eyes are what save the left half of his face from vanishing into the shadow.
Pose: There is nothing drastically wrong with the pose, it is good; but it could have helped to prevent other problems if done slightly differently. His slouched posture gives him a feeling of being at ease with himself and his surroundings, which is good. However, it also produced the wringles in his clothing that help to accent how strong the light is (again, a fill light could help here).
The tilt of his head is a bit too straight on for my tastes. Having him look slightly more to his right (just enough to hide his right ear) would have moved his face more into the light, without his features casting such harse shadows.
Background: The only thing I would change about the background would be to move him further from it (to get it to blur more), as it is nearly as sharp as he is, which can be a bit distracting.

Princess
by Sonifo

Comment:
Lighting: Very nice, even and well balanced, light that is giving wonderful skin tones. However, there is a touch of over-exposure in the crown and lower-left gown and the harsh shadow under the chin is not flattering.
Pose: Near perfect. The only think I could recommend would be to raise her head just a bit (diminishing the shadow) and placing her left hand on her lap. On a related note, the tip of her wand seems to be outside your DOF or blurred from motion and is quite distracting from an otherwise well posed shot.
Background: Not much to say about the background. A very (very) light shade of pink would have kept with the theme better, but would have provided much less separation.

Gizelle
by Malokata

Comment:
Lighting: While you have a nice catchlight in her eyes, a small backlight aimed at the back of her head would have provided some very needed separation between her dark hair and the dark background. The lack of detail, color shift and banding (hair mainly) in the dark areas suggests this was underexposed and then lightened during post-processing. The right side of her face needs a fill light to counteract the harsh shadows.
Pose: The pose is nice, very well executed. However, it was likely not the best pose for her choice of clothing. With her leaning back as she is, the shirt falls too heavily on her undergarment providing some very distracting lines to an otherwise excellent draping of the fabric. Finally, on a related note, the tight cropping on the left (removing her arm) is undesirable.
Background: There is not enough detail left in the background to say more than I mentioned above, except that a lighter background would have bounced light back on the model, helping to light her, instead of pulling the light from her.

A shot with a lot of potential lost due to what appears to be low lighting.

Forty-Nine
by charmayne

Comment:
Lighting: Lighting is well balanced, with a nice catchlight. But there seems to be a bit of a color-cast to the image as a whole, and the harshness of the lighting is not flattering her skin tone. Judging from the contrast and the well-defined shadow on the background, the portrait would have benefitted from the use of something to diffuse the light more.
Pose: Having her look up is good as it flatters the face and neck. However, with the raised head, the shot should be taken from above her level with her head tilted toward you (revealing both eyes) instead of away. Also, lifting the right shoulder gives me a feeling of her pitching backwards, so the left shoulder would have been better.
Background: The background is a nice neutral shade and fits the subject quite well. The only thing I would sugest on this would be to put more distance between the model and the background; this would have reduced or eliminated the shadow behind her.
It is a shame the cropping did not include the back of her head.