Emma

You do some great work. This one isn't my favorite, though.

My nitpicks (take with a grain of salt)
A little dark overall
crop seems a little tight.
with the lighting, crop & comp, maybe just because I'm a guy, but the focus seems to draw me to her right "girl", rather than her face.
Her right pupil blends with the dark background, which is a little weird
are those 2 small reflected spots of light on her nose, or a blemish?

The "darkness" was done on purpose as well as the tight crop. I see what you mean about the pupil, must be the compression because the hi res file didn't blend. And the reflected spots are in fact light on her nose and I did try to heal them out, but it looked really obvious so I just left them as is.

Thanks for looking!

Thanks for giving me feedback on my feedback
It helps me understand how I "see" images vs how others "see" them.
Can you give me some insight into the darkness and crop?

Crap. I wish I was XoZe's photog helper.

I like the attempt to what I believe to be a somewhat mystical shot as only one eye is available to view. I think the lighting is pretty good (waaayyy better than anything I could do for a reference point on my comment). I like the jet black background, but Gary's right with the pupil blending.

The darkness thing is perplexing.... If I look at the image here, then bounce over to your SM version, they look different with SM actually looking a bit darker overall than TWT. Yet I think the version above still is a tad bit dark around the eyes.

That said, I'm not sure where the focal point is as the eyes are darker than I think (shadows?) should be, and her right breast seems to draw the eye in there. If that was the intent, then success, but I don't think that's the case.

And the DOF is good for me except the hair flip in front of her left eye. I suppose I prefer shots like this to have the depth of the model to encompass the hair back through the background.

I'm not gutsy enough to try this kind of shooting so temper my comments with a stiff adult beverage.

Source:
http://xoze.smugmug.com/Galleries/Glamour/Emma/i-NhGG56P/0/XL/IMG0207LR-XL.jpg


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As a pure amateur, I'm not a huge fan of cutting off the tops of heads unless the photo also crops just about the neck. Just seems unbalanced.

Just my opinion, take it for what you paid for it.

Thanks all...I'll address questions in the morning, but I appreciate the feedback. It makes me a better photographer, even if I'm just an amateur.