Some early attempts at Portrait Lighting

These are my first portrait posts. I just bought lights a few weeks ago. I'm looking for constructive criticism on the lighting of these pics. Of course, she's a beautiful girl, she's my niece .

I think these are pretty good. But if (it's really not "if" but how) I can get better I would certainly like too. Right now I'm working with a black background only, Need to save up for some others. I'm working with two lights and a reflector in this pic.

Thanks for your time and input.

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aww bless. Very cute child and great smile.

She is very cute, great smile. The lighting looks pretty good in these, just a little dark, IMO. Based on the catchlights in her eyes, they look like they might be a little too high. Also, remember the rule of thirds, the child is too centered in the pic, maybe try and fix this by playing with some crops, which will also help all of the black space around her, especially in the 2nd shot.

More like this or still too dark?

PS - I not a big fan of the web save. I think the photo loses a little detail.

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I think the edited version is better...the crop is so much better, the light seems better too altho it looks pixeled. I know i hate SFW feature too mine always seem to look so crappy compared to the original esp when there's a lot of colors and stuff so you have to save it at 50% to get it under 100K. I think you did well tho. Great job.

TSEE wrote in post #2741263
I think the edited version is better...the crop is so much better, the light seems better too altho it looks pixeled. I know i hate SFW feature too mine always seem to look so crappy compared to the original esp when there's a lot of colors and stuff so you have to save it at 50% to get it under 100K. I think you did well tho. Great job.

I see on the board that it appears a little pixeled. The original is much sharper and full of detail. I did a little lightening and cropping using "Lightroom" (Adobe), which seems to be an excellent program. Thanks for your positive comments.