Stills

More power to your elbow! I know what you mean about light and portraits but have never had any luck with anything but the most spontaneous, on the wing shots. If I tried what you have done here I doubt I could match it (for lighting). For me the whole picture works well, but the upper half more than the lower half. Somehow, with this angle one doesn't want the DOF to drop away quite so immediately at the chest: it divides the picture in two to a certain extent. But others may say I'm wrong, which would be fine. But apart from that relatively minor niggle, the composition, colour balance and representation of the subject (that most particularly) is very good.
 

PS - what is with the way you title your pictures?!
 

Colin, thanks ;-)

John, the titles are the numbering system I use for all my picture files. The first four digits are the roll or session number for digital. The last four digits are the frame number. I'm usually underwhelmed by picture titles, or perhaps I'm just too lazy to come up with them, although a good one occasionaly strikes me.

I wish I could take more credit for the lighting. In this case this is just the light comming in through our bedroom window. The window is frosted, so it's essentially a big softbox.

I appreciate the critique re dof. It does indeed divide the picture in half, which I hadn't considered. I think I'll try this shot again with both more and less dof although less dof might require a step ladder and a longer lens.
 

I'm a fan of the use of DOF in this one and think it works. This image seems very natural to me though I think it would benefit from losing the shadow on the left. It's not that I don't like shadows it's just that I don't think this one adds anything and, perhaps, takes away in a distracting sense.

A very natural looking pose. To me it says, "here I am" or "this is me" without being aggressive, perhaps with a touch of adoration.
 

I don't mind the DOF. The head is sharp, the rest of the body shows the clothes to give a bit more idea about the personality of the sitter. I am not sure if the angle has made the chin appear longer though. For me, I would like to have seen a more interesting expression.
 

As mentioned outside of this forum you have a great model to work with. However, she seems a little cramped in this picture. The look in her eye is telling me as much. Perhaps a little more on the right so I see her whole arm would give the her more room to work in. Then the eyes may be telling me another story. Like it!
 

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Johnjo; would the shadow work better if it was deeper? This was my first thought about it, but I'm not sure if that would make the pic too moody.

John L: I'm going to give this another shot with a longer lens. I think the 50mm perspective has exagerrated the chin and lips more than I would have liked.

Guy: The cut off on the right is parallax error from using a rangefinder. This pose was a bit cramped for both of us, and I was struggling to get enough room. As said above, I'm going to give this another shot with a longer lens from a greater distance.
 

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matt~: "would the shadow work better if it was deeper?"

No, I'm not sure that it would and I agree about the moodyness. This isn't a moody image from my perspective so I don't think it needs or benefits from even the small amount of darkness that the shadow gives it here.

Depth is already there in abundance due to the feeling given by the shallow DOF.

Hard to achieve uniform light using natural resources indoors. In many ways you are limited by fortune. I would be tempted to use an off camera flash to soften that shadow.

PS. above deleted comment due to ineptitude with copy and paste.
 

ahh. normal image. fine. like the POV. would like to see a smoother transition from sharp to unsharp for the reason: looks a bit like artificially added.
anyway I fine and fresh portrait.
 

I ment now it looks a bit like artificially added...
 

"I would be tempted to use an off camera flash to soften that shadow."

Yeah, that was I thought I had. I'm also thinking about moving her closer to the corner to bounce a little more light into that shadow.

"I ment now it looks a bit like artificially added..."

It isn't added artificially, but I can see why would think that. I think the perspective contributes to that impression, since you can't see the gradual fall off of the DOF.

The more I look at this, the more I'm thinking I need to shoot with a longer lens and with more DOF, which means a lot more light.
 

The important part of this image is her face and therefore the use of DoF helps remove distraction. As the face is the prime subject the arm crop doesn't impact.

Nice catchlights in her eyes and a great 'look'