Good work, especially in controlling foreground and background, and knowing when to push the big button. As mentioned above, no need for serious self-deprecation.
There's a rather dramatic difference across these pix, the lighting is varying quite a bit in its effects.
In #1, the cheek shadow on camera right is too much for my taste. The image would be improved with some fill light. This could come from a reflector, or could be an on-camera flash with a small soft box. The flash would be dialed down significantly just to fill the shadows a bit. In this use, if the primary lighting is incandescent or "warm white", you sometimes need a (warm) color correction filter on the flash so it's the same color temp as the primary lighting.
This is also a shadow that might respond really well to some fine local correction in LR or PS.
#2 seems a bit too warm to me - she looks a little orange-ey. And her tiara doesn't look white...
#3 is mostly excellent; but do you know why, and how you would bring that excellence to more of your shots?
Lighting - a nice, contemporary soft look. Shadows on camera right are gradual, soft-edged, and just dense enough.
Geometrics of the background, softness of the background, she has a nice "pop" and dimensionality here. It's got depth, that's important in rendering a 3d world in a flat 2d photo.
Expression - that's a good hit on the button, and/or good directing.
One thing that would improve these 3 pix is so-called "catch lights" in the eyes. As portraits, a little gleam can bring a lot of life to the eyes. An on-camera flash dialed way down can help here, too. Again, it will also tend to fill shadows in deeper eye sockets.
#4 and 5 - I'd ask her/them to step further away from the background.
#5 - her eyes are gone. It's a nice pose... IMO something needs to change here. Her expression - eyes not so narrowed, or, closer shot with more fill. Color looks a bit cold.
In summary, in your place I'd be focusing next on understanding the principles of portrait lighting. You'll often see this referred to as "3-point" lighting. IMO it's not so important to use this particular technique, but studying the effects of key, fill, back, background, hard, and soft light sources will help you to see existing light and how it is creating the image. Sometimes moving the camera a couple feet to the right or left will drastically change the effects of existing light.
Some people will stop right there, since an understanding of what existing light can do is so helpful. Others will want to work with modifiers (reflectors & flags), and with one or more sources to supplement or replace existing light.
For what it's worth. If it's fun.
From the upper left corner of the U.S.
Photos, Video & Pano r us.
College and workshop instructor in video and audio.
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