Great self reflection on your own work. Well at least it show that every shot's been put in a lot of thoughts and implicitness instead of just wild point and shoot.

On the tech side, I do agree that the colours could use a little more punch, but careful not to overdo it otherwise your model would appear seriously tanned. As you mentioned, pic #4 is indeed soft, because it's OOF-ed. You may have nailed the focus on the eyes, but maybe some movement just before you release the shutter introduced the softness...And about the composition...Im not gonna ask you to try "improve" your composition anymore, cause words alone gets you nowhere. But you really should follow certain forumer's advice to apply the "Rule of Third" when you compose a shot.

On the interpretation of the pictures and the subject...Frankly, it requires certain artistic sense to be able to see eye to eye with you. I mean in terms of "getting" you on what you meant to convey with your photographs. Thus people would like to see pictures that speaks for themselves. Pictures with such significant impact they strike words into the minds of their viewers, instead of having you lay down captions to convey your original thoughts while taking the photograph.

I'd recommend more close up shots, but not too close that it hides away other features of the subject that made up the connections. And the expression of the subject MATTERS. Most of the time if you're capturing people's natural behaviour or expression, the pictures couldnt get worst. A subject who smiles naturally, from the bottom of their heart is really, really photogenic, when you ask them to pose that's another story, they tensed up and struggle to make themselves look good while in reality that would not give them the look. Try interact a lot with your subject, make them feel comfortable with you and crack some jokes occasionally to make them smile as they really wanted it.

Full body portraits arent appealing most of the time, unless you're taking it from a dynamic angle, including some other subject of interests or backgrounds of equal weight. Also, more contrast would be good, as I notice that's the reason why most of your shots are plain. Especially when you're doing B&W.


Sorry for the bad quality, downloaded from my facebook's album as I was too lazy to look for the original.

Well all that's just my humble opinion. Like I said if you're already satisfied with what you're doing currently, then just let it be, continue doing what you like. Remember, you're shooting for yourself. Cheers!

This post has been edited by ReasonsofThanatos: Jun 2 2011, 09:26 PM