This is going to hit you as rather blunt and unkind. It’s not meant that way. I’m just not going to take time to candy-coat the statements. If you’re going to shoot females, you need to spend a lot of time studying good female photos for lighting, pose, etc. Go buy some women’s magazines, tear out the images, tack them on a wall and study them.
This is just a mind dump, items presented in no particular order:
--Images are too soft. You need to learn to consistently deliver tack-sharp images.
--Images are poorly composed. That tight-frame approach works occasionally if a lot of things are right, but, these images simply look crowded. You’re also not making effective use of the rule of thirds
--The human head is a vertical object. If you’re going to fill the frame with the face/head, a vertical composition will generally work better
--Lighting is dead/without purpose. You’re clearly accepting whatever light is available in the location at the time you choose to shoot. You need to shoot when the light is best at that particular location or take steps to alter the available light with flash, reflectors.
--In many shots there is little or no shadow detail. Black shadows are as distracting as blown highlights. Bounce some light in the shadow areas to show me what’s there
--OOF elements in the foreground of most images are distracting. Unless it’s a framing device, OOF foreground elements rarely make a positive contribution
--Images are too busy. Simplify so the intended subject stands out
--Don’t crop limbs at joints. It makes them look amputated
--DOF is too deep in most shots, keeping distracting elements in enough focus to draw attention away from the intended subject
--Eyes must be in absolute, tack-sharp focus
--If you’re going to photograph humans, particularly females, hair, makeup, and clothes become major factors. Hair needs to be clean, combed, and have style to it. Unless your images are designed to show off clothing, attire needs to be simple and not detract from the face. Makeup becomes critical with close-up shots. Tough to achieve with young ladies who have no clue how to apply makeup, or don’t wear any, but it’s a factor.
--Images don’t seem to have any reason behind them, i.e., what are you trying to convey with the images, what message do you want me to get, why should I bother looking at the photo
This image uses an unflattering pose with the cleavage and various straps pulling the viewer’s eyes away from the face. Hair looks dirty/oily, grass in the background has enough detail to pull the eye away from the face, subject’s eyes are dead center, there is no expression to suggest how she’s feeling or interacting with you, makeup is out of whack, i.e., strong eye makeup is out of balance with lack of face makeup and lipstick, lighting is rather flat.
In this shot you have the subject buried behind OOF foreground elements and that highlighted elbow/arm that is getting shoved into my face. By the time my eye gets past the elbow to the expressionless subject buried in shadows, I’ve lost interest. That piece of metal protruding in the top is distracting, as are the highlights in her hair on the edges of the frame. Eliminate the necklace. In this image you want me to see her face, but everything in the image prevents me from doing so.
