Olga, I ran across your  portrait today and I love it! I read Yosef's comment several times and still didn't quite understand. I think it's perfect! Is he saying that behind your left arm (the hand on your face) should have a lighter background than the other side? I would think the logic would be the darker side would have a darker background.

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I really like this pose - the triangle arm and hand to your face is so effective - my eye did travel unwillingly to your other hand - it just seemed to jump right to your arm without giving me a chance to see how your hand got there. I suppose if I could see better the lower half and see your arm actually travelling to that hand it would make more sense - as it is, I tended to jump to your hand rather than travel smoothly to your hand.

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A Beautiful Portrait Olga. Great Pose.

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Olga, this photo is so good and professional, so I will share some more detailed critique, if that's ok..

1) I remember reading once, that if you are shooting a portrait with the shadow on the left side of the face, then the LEFT side of the BACKGROUND should be brighter, and the shadow side if any, should be behind the BRIGHTER part of the subject's face (does that make sense??)

That's not necessarily a critique, just food for thought

2) The second thing that comes to mind is that all the dark shadow areas in the lower half kind of meld into darkness with no real detail showing. An extra light would have helped here, even some fill, or a choice of clothes that had a lighter shade.

Looking forward to seeing your photos this year.. you've set the bar quite high for yourself, don't be afraid to just 'snap' some shots with your phone too sometimes ;)

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