First attempt at shooting "model" on location

Alright, shot these the other evening with available light only. Got my gf to do the job after twisting her arm.. I like how some of them came out but, tear me to shreds I want to get better, and advise me if any of these or the ones on my flickr are acceptable for building a portfolio

1.)

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ericdaley/38892​54951/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ericdaley/38900​48488/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ericdaley/38900​48642/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ericdaley/38900​48778/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ericdaley/38900​48884/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ericdaley/38892​55373/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ericdaley/38900​48416/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ericdaley/38900​48696/

We need a reduction in number. It's been a long day.
Could you narrow it down to your best two?.

I like #5 the best.
In regards to the comment Robert posted....I'm not sure who "we" are. Maybe he has a frog in his pocket. And being a long day.....I suggest the elderly get to bed before 22:43.

"We" is me, myself and I

Okay, I'll take a general stab...

1,2,and are very pretty and flattering, and appear to have good use of light, and #6 looks good except for her disappearing right hand. There is a better pose for folding/crossing arms where fingers show on both hands, and looks better on the eye.

#3 seems just a bit soft and the pose is not as flattering as some of your others

#4 and #7, if you take a close look at the left upper arms in both shots, not the most flattering positions. ;=)

My favs in this series are #1, #2, #5 and #8, I think they are right on, with 5 being my topper! The blue in her shirt really brings out her sparkling blue eyes!

Need to work on posing.. tried using a pose chart.. was still not easy.

4,5,6 are best, sharpest

5 & 8 are my faves. Lovely!

What's a "pose chart"?

JimMcrae wrote in post #8700324
5 & 8 are my faves. Lovely!

What's a "pose chart"?

http://www.lmgtfy.com/​?q=model+pose+chart

Tearing you to shreds won't make you a better photographer and I'm not sure why this mentality still exists. The reality is solid information will help anyone expand their skills and if that constitutes a shredding so be it.

For a first whack at it I think you did quite well. I agree with the people who have already selected the favorites. I think a place to start is culling photographs or starting to see which ones are keepers and which ones are not. I might add that there are things that can be done to improve each print but that gets into subjective approaches to art.

Setting, pose, costume, and light are the biggest play factors in people photography whether street level or portrait. It is a worthy investment to spend time learning from photo books on people photography to see how these elements play out. That dais the photograph must be executed correctly and focus, particularly on the eyes is a big deal. Either focus is being manipulated intentionally or it must be exact.

I like your approach to poses because you mixed it up to the best of your ability. In this there are a couple of really fine poses here.

I see several nice images and a keepers or two. What do you see? If you had 4 images to cull right now which 4 would you pick?

Here's an example of the ratio of keepers to best images. Galen Rowell, famous landscape photographer said he shot over 1 million images of which 300k were in his stock library, 1000 represented his best work, and 15 were his personal favorites. That's a lot of shooting and a very tight eye when it comes to quality control.