Would love some feedback critiques on my work.  I'm sure after taking a two year hiatus there's room for improvement.

Consider deleting the following photos to strengthen your port.

https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45131402
The pose needs adjusting, no neck and her head is positioned in a way that looking into the camera has her pupils too far into the corner of the eye. The effect on her expression is strange. There is an overall cyan cast that looks a bit dreary. The lamp is the brightest part of the image and distracts from the model.

https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45024799
This is a snapshot. The lighting is not flattering, there are distracting hot spots on her knees and from the building in the right badkground. Pose cuts off her left hand at the wrist and makes it appear that she may be a double amputee. The model's expression is uncomfortable.

Hope this helps, cheers!

Good suggestions and done.  Thank you!

Careful not to crop off hands:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45131392

This is very nice:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45087542

Other than the fact that her right arm is 'missing' and her left hand is cropped off, I like this photo:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45024798

Partly because the lighting is much better there than in these:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45131398
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45131392

In those two, the lighting feels only a tiny step better than bare on-camera flash. And without a kicker light, the background is bland and the photo lacks dimension.

For the same reason I also like this better:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45024796

but again the hand is cropped off.

I feel like this was a fairly plain shot that was edited to try to make it more epic:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45024793

Partly successful, but it would be much better if you used a strobe to light your subject at the scene to achieve the lighting you tried to do in post.

I like this a lot, partly because of the editing, the blue dress is pretty, the model is pretty, and the location is very nice:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45024776

Your background is darker than your subject (which is good), but STILL INTERESTING, unlike the two I mentioned earlier that I didn't like because of the flat flash and blah background. I would advise aiming to get more photos like this in your port.

I feel 'meh' about these:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45024722
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45024696
https://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/45024674

Hope some of that is helpful.

This is a general note about horizontal versus vertical composition. This is purely my personal philosophy, but I prefer vertical composition for portraits. I rather like a few of your shots with the background elements and the subject, but I think you need to consider breaking out of your horizontal formats and emphasize verticals. The question I ask myself before I click the shutter button is, "What am I saying in this scene?" Is it about the subject? Is it about the background? Is it a relationship between subject and background.

All of your photographs are portraits, yet the subject's impact is minimized by including so much background. I think people only need a few clues to give context to the location of a subject. I think this shot is a good example:


In my opinion, the pattern and colors of the background are really engaging. However, that detracts from the subject. For me, I didn't notice the gun in her jeans until studying it for a while, but THAT is the message you are trying to convey. If this shot was framed vertically, the texture of the cement wall would be enough for us to understand the urban feel of the subject. It would allow the viewer to focus on the subject's hair color, the subject's jewelry, the gun, etc.

I think your format could dramatically improve your impact. Overall, strong work.

Hello and welcome back! 2 years is a great time to think and come back with a better passion than before, be better than your last shoot I always say! Few things I would change is posing, there are so many video on youtube to help you, talk to your model and direct her on posing! last but least Cropping is key, I noticed in your photos cropping can be improved.
KEEP SHOOTING and have fun!