Lee_Photography wrote:

The first thing I see is her skin looks over exposed
When posing a subject the idea is to make them look as flattering as possible, in this pose a better idea might be to place her hips on an angle to camera this has an inherited thinning effect, better not to point toes at camera as it will tend to shorten the look of the feet.
When using a 17mm lens it has an issue called perspective distortion, notice her legs how they tapper off so quickly, but the midsection looks larger then it should by comparison   .
The other give away is the keystone effect on the door way, see how the bottom tapers in? So if it doing it to the door way, then subject has the same effect being applied to her.


This is a powerful image, just wish all of model left hand in photo


I wish you well

Thank you so much for your input!! This is exactly what I'm looking for that I can't get from posting anywhere else.  I did know the lens I used has bad distortion that disappears only after 18mm.  I think I can easily correct this.  However I did not realize that the direction the feet are facing had much impact,  I'll remember that next time!

As for the male model, this was waaaay back when I was still getting the hang of things.  In fact this photo was used to help him win a $10,000 giveaway from the company whose products he uses.  Besides his hands, how do you feel about his lower extremities not being "in" the picture?

Rene Padilla wrote:
Thank you so much for your input!! This is exactly what I'm looking for that I can't get from posting anywhere else.  I did know the lens I used has bad distortion that disappears only after 18mm.  I think I can easily correct this.  However I did not realize that the direction the feet are facing had much impact,  I'll remember that next time!

As for the male model, this was waaaay back when I was still getting the hang of things.  In fact this photo was used to help him win a $10,000 giveaway from the company whose products he uses.  Besides his hands, how do you feel about his lower extremities not being "in" the picture?

Try this with your camera and see the difference between the shots, place a few pencils on a table top, so they are pointed at the camera lens, keep the camera in exactly the same position but move the pencils so they are facing to the right or left take another photo and compare, the effect you see here holds true for fingers, toes shoes and other things as well. The reason the human can see in three dimensions while most cameras are limited to just two.

As to the lens, you would need to use a larger value then 18mm, the distortion I am talking about is not with the lens itself, but rather the effect “called perspective distortion", some times called “Dog nose”.


Cropping of the human body, the place to crop is between the first joint and the body,  that is between the knee and body, and between the elbow and the body. So if you show the elbow then include the hand same with knee if you show the knee include the foot.

So in the photo you asked about you have cropped the subject between his knees and his body. But in this photo you are showing his elbow but not the full hand. As to the crop I would like to see more space between models left hand and right photo border, more breathing room if you well.



One last interesting point, if you show a deer, dog or person standing in say foot tall grass, include enough of the grass so that even if we cannot see the feet, you have left enough space at the bottom of the photo to include the feet hidden in the grass.

OK, maybe one more, cut out two large “L” shaped cardboard pieces, print out the photos you wish to crop, then use the cardboard “L's” to try different crops, keeping in mind “rule of thirds”

Wow, if I had ten thousand dollars I would get a new camera and computer … one can dream can't they.

Have fun and keep smiling