critique on portraits pls

Hi there, i'd really like to see these being critiqued to learn to improve on it more and more, please go ahead and be frank:
1

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Being a complete amateur, I really don't have much advice to offer; I will, however, try .

I like the second photo; the angle/expression are nice .

As for the first and third photos, my advice would be to crop them; you don't need to include unnecessary parts of the image that would just detract from it. Maybe you can also play around with the lighting and angles? To make it more visually pleasing, you can follow the rule of thirds.. Some decent boke can really add to an image... I'm sorry, I really don't have much advice to offer :/.

First of all, I find your exposures to be good. I don't see mention of any off camera equipment in your sig, but your exif data says no flash was fired. I'm not really sure if you used fill or not, and that's a good thing.

I find the pose in #1 to be a little odd although the shot is sharp. The second shot is a nice goofy candid. #3 is a much better pose, but I'm not crazy about the gadget or at least how she's holding it. #3 also seems a little soft. A kicker light might have helped a little.

I'm a big fan of filling the frame also. I like to take a couple of different focal length shots of the same scene then pick my favorite later. #3 especially could have been a little tighter.

Looks like you are on the right track. These shots really are pretty good. My critique sounds a little nitpicky, but I'm just looking for places you can improve.

I think your advice is good. I like number 2 as well (crop it a bit tighter). Number 3 needs to be straightened and cropped tighter and the first one is just terrible (lol... facial expression kind of ruins it and maybe it's just me but it appears slightly oof).

If you are processing you can play with the levels and curves a bit to make the picture a bit mroe sharp and "pop".

Good advice here. I find many times simply hitting "auto-levels" in Elements will make all the difference in the world.

edit: FMP: I brought your images into Elements and tried auto-levels to see what would happen. Apparently...nothing! I'm guessing you've already done this.