Hello everyone. Been looking through the forum postings quite a bit and like what I've seen so far.

I am looking for some feedback on my images below. The second is just a tighter crop of the first, yet I still can not decide which crop I like better. I am fairly new to portrait photography, but am definitely finding the challenges fun.

Thank you for taking the time look.

Steve

Welcome!
Beautiful woman.
Great job with the expression, eye contact, sharpness.
I prefer the tighter crop. Only wish her hand wasnt in the image. It looks bizarrely detaiched, entering from somewhere else.
I think if you showed it to your non-photographer friends, all would be impressed and no one would comment. But, to improve, you need a slightly different pose.
One other area to improve. Seems like either more mascara and/or shadowing arond her right eye and you could cautiously lighteni this spot.
I like the way the light falls off on the left edge of the frame.

Scott

Thanks Scott!

The second crop is better because it trims parts of the image that don't add to it. For PP, have you tried a little vignette for the lower right corner to dim the brightness of her upper arm? The pose exaggerates the size of her upper arm. A slightly different angle and/or a longer lens would help. Also lifting her chin might improve it as a portrait.