My Daughter in late afternoon sun

Photograph was shot at 7:45 pm model facing west; used a reflector to diffuse the harsh sunlight.
CPL with 3-stop ND filter ((didn’t need these; using to learn when they can benefit portrait photography

Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/125
Av( Aperture Value ) 1.8
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed 100
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF50mm f/1.4 USM
Focal Length 50.0mm
Image Quality RAW
Flash On
Flash Type Built-In Flash
E-TTL II flash metering Evaluative flash metering
Flash Exposure Compensation -1
Red-eye Reduction On
Shutter curtain sync 1st-curtain sync

430 EX II fired camera right in Opetc Softbox

Gorgeous girl , but the focus makes me squint.....so perhaps a bit off?

Yeah, the focus is on her chest, not her eyes. Also, it looks like she's pulling her head back. Try getting her to lean forward and focus on her eyes.

I like it and her leaning back slightly demonstrates personality.

David

Agreed on focus.
Her head is at an odd angle to me and just doesn't look natural.
It looks like you shot this shot with the camera at about chest level, which is great for full-body shots, but I don't think so nice for headshots. Try taking the shot from exactly her eye level or slightly above.

Having the eyes looking slightly up looks really nice in younger models, but in this case it is at the expense of her tilting her head down and tucking in her chin a bit.

Always try and focus on the eyes!

Thank you all for the comments; the camera was indeed slightly below her chest level as she was sitting on a rock that had a fence rail behind it. I took the shot from below to remove the railing from becoming part of the photo; brings me to a question that has been plaguing me.

When you have the camera below or above the intended target, will the focal plane be measured in a straight line from the camera’s elevation, or will it take into account the angle? I suspect that the latter is not the case as my AF point was on her eye but the actual shot looks to have focused on her chest. Given the distance the shot was taken and the angle to the target it makes sense.

Focus will be in a straight line from the lens, regardless of angle.

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Lens...............foc​al plane
Even if this was at a 45 deg angle.

Again, thank you. ((so much to learn))

Now it all makes sense to me; she was approximately 6’ away from the camera, give or take 2’ above the centerline. Using the DOF calculator at f/1.8 I get 5’10” near, and 6’2” far; trigonometry tells me that the AF point was roughly 6’4”, outside the DOF. Since she was leaning back the actual focus hit her chest.

So glad I posted this shot; I learned a great lesson today.

Rocky Rhode wrote in post #12842678
Again, thank you. ((so much to learn))

Now it all makes sense to me; she was approximately 6’ away from the camera, give or take 2’ above the centerline. Using the DOF calculator at f/1.8 I get 5’10” near, and 6’2” far; trigonometry tells me that the AF point was roughly 6’4”, outside the DOF. Since she was leaning back the actual focus hit her chest.

So glad I posted this shot; I learned a great lesson today.

Do you mean give or take 2 inches or 2 feet?

I think you have this wrong. If you focused on her eyes and then did not move or rotate the camera, the eyes should be in best focus unless the camera/lens is mis-focusing. I own the Canon 100 f/2 and the 50 f/1.4 and find the 100 f/2 to be a much better focusing lens.