need comments on editing work.

would like comments and critiques on these edited photos. problem areas as well as good areas. Thanks.

here are the posts again at a larger size.

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Ya need to post larger images.

will do momentarily. thanks.

The backgrounds are just too much for me....too bright and busy.

Nice captures but there is a little detail lost in the hair and a tendency to show the b/g as opposed to isolating your subject from it.

I like #1 and think it would be improved if you would apply a mask over her and then darken the background just a bit. Do it carefully and it won't look fake. The light is already getting golden, so making it a bit darker will not look unnatural. Also, the shadows on her eyes are just a bit deep, especially the left eye, and could benefit from a tiny bit of dodging.

#2, the background is awfully distracting, but selecting and darkening the background above the bench helps quite a bit. Again, with the shadows already there it won't look fake.

Overall very pleasing pictures and a very charming subject.

EDIT: Here it is 12 hours later and I'm kind of annoyed by my own use of the the expression "it won't look fake". To me that seems to imply "Well, it is fake, but it won't look that way." That's not what I mean at all, and I probably should have said "it won't look unnatural." The camera saw the background because it doesn't know a person from a tree or a brick; the artist (or maybe better, the artist's eyes and brain) saw the person and deemphasized the distracting background. By editing the image to deemphasize the background you would be making it closer to what you, the artist and photographer, saw.

#1 maybe use the popup flash for some fill light
#2 The tree is a little distracting ( above her head )

rather than that it looks pleasant, keep shooting

I, too, agree that the tree is a bit distracting in #2. One thing that keeps catching my eye in #1 is the red element to the left of the model (looks like a little ferris wheel). Give her a little more light and that should also reduce the intensity of the background.

Lovely model. Chin up a little more will improve the pose I think.

1st, I think would look better as a portrait.
2nd, I like it, but I do not like the pole sticking out her head. The thin sunlit background at the top is distracting.