Thanks all! Most of you picked #2 which I also prefer. I know I need to work on composition but the model wants the processed image so post processing is part of my learning curve. Yes I'm still working on my compositions... ALWAYS! And that includes lighting, DoF, balance....
I probably prefer #2 by a small margin, but that area in the lower left corner is blown out and very distracting. It's really where my eyes went first despite the very attractive model. I'm far from a trained eye only an amateur myself but probably your composition / light control needs more practice than the processing, which really looks reasonable across all 3 shots.
Thanks PeterJ. Composition and light control is exactly what I'm working on with this set. I limited myself to one lens and natural light only. This was taken during sunset. I know a fill flash would have worked but I've seen prophotogs do these shots without it. I wanted to learn to use natural light before adding more complexity of controlling artificial lights.
In terms of composition, try cropping the bottom around the area where the handrail meets the wall and on the right on the edge of the bush, perhaps leaving two leaves, so that the image is still in a 3x2 format and see if you think it looks better. The combination of the overexposure and processing have left a dark line surrounding her right arm in particular, so be careful of artefacts. However, you do need to learn about composition before worrying about processing and other factors that help to improve images.
Thanks Kernuak! Very very helpful. The dark lines are caused by uncorrected purple fringing. I tried correcting it more in Lightroom but it's still there. This taught me one more thing about the lens, the other was... I can't see anything shooting into the sun!
As for the composition, I thought the bush balances her but now that you guys pointed it out, she's actually in the center of the frame.
As you suggested, here is the edited one. And you're correct, it made it better and the horizon line is on the third. Thanks again!
Lin_20121124_0001.jpg by
Christian Ronnel, on Flickr