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To improve your portraiture, try simplifying your composition to better focus the viewer's attention to your subject.

How? (No particular order):

• Square yourself with the background. You are closer to the background camera left than you are camera right.
• Use less distracting backgrounds--the brightly coloured curb running through the photograph pulls the eye away from the subject
• Use a calmer background--if that's impractical, a larger aperture lens will throw the details of the bushy background further out of focus, providing a calming, soft backdrop upon which you can place your subject
• Unclutter her lap--can you get her to engage with you (behind the camera) without the toys? She will appear to be engaging the viewer and smiling or laughing.
• Consider using portrait orientation--human bodies (even sitting) are taller than they are wide. You can avoid creating tension in your image by harmonizing the long axis of your image with the long axis of your subject.
• Consider calming the subject's clothes--from top to bottom, she's got stripes, polka-dots, prints and finally big blocks of colour in her socks. All in supersaturated colors. This is a lot of visual energy that isn't adding to the portrait. Bright and energetic is OK, but fewer different examples of it in one photograph will help lower viewer distraction
• Give her some room to breathe in the full-body shot--in trying to go for a tight crop, you've chopped off her feet, creating edge tension--the opposite of what you want for a portrait.
• Alternatively, move closer for more engagement--compose as a head-and-shoulders portrait.

Your high-key exposure of her face may be a touch too hot, or it may be that you like the "clean" look--either way, the lighting is good, as is her engagement with the camera. Keep practicing, Alok--your model is adorable!

To improve your portraiture, try simplifying your composition to better focus the viewer's attention on your subject.

How? (No particular order):

• Square yourself with the background. You are closer to the background camera left than you are camera right.
• Use less distracting backgrounds--the brightly coloured curb running through the photograph pulls the eye away from the subject
• Use a calmer background--if that's impractical, a larger aperture lens will throw the details of the bushy background further out of focus, providing a calming, soft backdrop upon which you can place your subject
• Unclutter her lap--can you get her to engage with you (behind the camera) without the toys? She will appear to be engaging the viewer and smiling or laughing.
• Consider using portrait orientation--human bodies (even sitting) are taller than they are wide. You can avoid creating tension in your image by harmonizing the long axis of your image with the long axis of your subject.
• Consider calming the subject's clothes--from top to bottom, she's got stripes, polka-dots, prints and finally big blocks of colour in her socks. All in supersaturated colors. This is a lot of visual energy that isn't adding to the portrait. Bright and energetic is OK, but fewer different examples of it in one photograph will help lower viewer distraction
• Give her some room to breathe in the full-body shot--in trying to go for a tight crop, you've chopped off her feet, creating edge tension--the opposite of what you want for a portrait.
• Alternatively, move closer for more engagement--compose as a head-and-shoulders portrait.

Your high-key exposure of her face may be a touch too hot, or it may be that you like the "clean" look--either way, the lighting is good, as is her engagement with the camera. Keep practicing, Alok--your model is adorable!

To improve your portraiture, try simplifying your composition to better focus the viewer's attention to your subject.

How? (No particular order):

• Square yourself with the background. You are closer to the background camera left than you are camera right.
• Use less distracting backgrounds--the brightly coloured curb running through the photograph pulls the eye away from the subject
• Use a calmer background--a larger aperture lens will throw the details of the bushy background further out of focus, providing a calming, soft backdrop upon which you can place your subject
• Unclutter her lap--can you get her to engage with you (behind the camera) without the toys? She will appear to be engaging the viewer and smiling or laughing.
• Consider using portrait orientation--human bodies (even sitting) are taller than they are wide. You can avoid creating tension in your image by harmonizing the long axis of your image with the long axis of your subject.
• Consider calming the subject's clothes--from top to bottom, she's got stripes, polka-dots, prints and finally big blocks of colour in her socks. All in supersaturated colors. This is a lot of visual energy that isn't adding to the portrait. Bright and energetic is OK, but fewer different examples of it in one photograph will help lower viewer distraction
• Give her some room to breathe in the full-body shot--in trying to go for a tight crop, you've chopped off her feet, creating edge tension--the opposite of what you want for a portrait.
• Alternatively, move closer for more engagement--compose as a head-and-shoulders portrait.

Your high-key exposure of her face may be a touch too hot, or it may be that you like the "clean" look--either way, the lighting is good, as is her engagement with the camera. Keep practicing, Alok--your model is adorable!

To improve your portraiture, try simplifying your composition to better focus the viewer's attention to your subject.

How? (No particular order):

• Square yourself with the background. You are closer to the background camera left than you are camera right.
• Use less distracting backgrounds--the brightly coloured curb running through the photograph pulls the eye away from the subject
• Use a calmer background--if that's impractical, a larger aperture lens will throw the details of the bushy background further out of focus, providing a calming, soft backdrop upon which you can place your subject
• Unclutter her lap--can you get her to engage with you (behind the camera) without the toys? She will appear to be engaging the viewer and smiling or laughing.
• Consider using portrait orientation--human bodies (even sitting) are taller than they are wide. You can avoid creating tension in your image by harmonizing the long axis of your image with the long axis of your subject.
• Consider calming the subject's clothes--from top to bottom, she's got stripes, polka-dots, prints and finally big blocks of colour in her socks. All in supersaturated colors. This is a lot of visual energy that isn't adding to the portrait. Bright and energetic is OK, but fewer different examples of it in one photograph will help lower viewer distraction
• Give her some room to breathe in the full-body shot--in trying to go for a tight crop, you've chopped off her feet, creating edge tension--the opposite of what you want for a portrait.
• Alternatively, move closer for more engagement--compose as a head-and-shoulders portrait.

Your high-key exposure of her face may be a touch too hot, or it may be that you like the "clean" look--either way, the lighting is good, as is her engagement with the camera. Keep practicing, Alok--your model is adorable!

To improve your portraiture, try simplifying your composition to better focus the viewer's attention to your subject.

How? (No particular order):

• Square yourself with the background. You are closer to the background camera left than you are camera right.
• Use less distracting backgrounds--the brightly coloured curb running through the photograph pulls the eye away from the subject
• Use a calmer background--a larger aperture lens will throw the details of the bushy background further out of focus, providing a calming, soft backdrop upon which you can place your subject
• Unclutter her lap--can you get her to engage with you (behind the camera) without the toys? She will appear to be engaging the viewer and smiling or laughing.
• Consider using portrait orientation--human bodies (even sitting) are taller than they are wide. You can avoid creating tension in your image by harmonizing the long axis of your image with the long axis of your subject.
• Consider calming the subject's clothes--from top to bottom, she's got stripes, polka-dots, prints and finally big blocks of colour in her socks. All in supersaturated colors. This is a lot of visual energy that isn't adding to the portrait. Bright and energetic is OK, but fewer different examples of it in one photograph will help by lowering viewer distraction
• Give her some room to breathe in the full-body shot--in trying to go for a tight crop, you've chopped off her feet, creating edge tension--the opposite of what you want for a portrait.
• Alternatively, move closer for more engagement--compose as a head-and-shoulders portrait.

Your high-key exposure of her face may be a touch too hot, or it may be that you like the "clean" look--either way, the lighting is good, as is her engagement with the camera. Keep practicing, Alok--your model is adorable!

To improve your portraiture, try simplifying your composition to better focus the viewer's attention to your subject.

How? (No particular order):

• Square yourself with the background. You are closer to the background camera left than you are camera right.
• Use less distracting backgrounds--the brightly coloured curb running through the photograph pulls the eye away from the subject
• Use a calmer background--a larger aperture lens will throw the details of the bushy background further out of focus, providing a calming, soft backdrop upon which you can place your subject
• Unclutter her lap--can you get her to engage with you (behind the camera) without the toys? She will appear to be engaging the viewer and smiling or laughing.
• Consider using portrait orientation--human bodies (even sitting) are taller than they are wide. You can avoid creating tension in your image by harmonizing the long axis of your image with the long axis of your subject.
• Consider calming the subject's clothes--from top to bottom, she's got stripes, polka-dots, prints and finally big blocks of colour in her socks. All in supersaturated colors. This is a lot of visual energy that isn't adding to the portrait. Bright and energetic is OK, but fewer different examples of it in one photograph will help lower viewer distraction
• Give her some room to breathe in the full-body shot--in trying to go for a tight crop, you've chopped off her feet, creating edge tension--the opposite of what you want for a portrait.
• Alternatively, move closer for more engagement--compose as a head-and-shoulders portrait.

Your high-key exposure of her face may be a touch too hot, or it may be that you like the "clean" look--either way, the lighting is good, as is her engagement with the camera. Keep practicing, Alok--your model is adorable!