First time doing a portrait

I shot my first ever portrait session a few days ago after buying myself a Godox AD600. First time using any kind of OCF or having a model in front of my camera as I usually shoot automotive.


Gear: Nikon D7100, Nikkor 50mm, F2.8. ISO 100
Godox AD600B, Phot-R 37" Softbox

Any feedback is welcomed as I am always looking to improve

Very nice I'd say. Composition is good - maybe just a bit too much negative space at the top of the frame for my liking but that's pretty subjective.

On the upside it's clear, sharp, nicely focused subject.. and.. he's not standing on railroad tracks... so yup, I'd say that's mighty darn impressive for a first portrait.

Looks good to me. I do have an unreasonable knee jerk about trees growing out of someone's head due to some bad portraits I made in my early days. Not really a problem with this composition.


I've spent some fun times in Princes Risborough but don't remember any woods nearby.

I've been told by a friend photographer that a vertical picture should never be in the camera's native 2x3 crop. The reason being that since both our eyes are side by side, it conflicts them when an image is too long for it's width. He says that when you look at all the famous classic painters, their format of choice was 14x11. In this case, it would remove some space above and in the bottom, making the subject more prominent in the shot.
The other thing that could help would be to remove bright distracting elements (a few lighter leaves) that keep the eyes moving away from the subject even unconsciously.

Thank you for all the feedback, I agree with the space at the top of the fame. I kept it due to the tree and just didn't want the trunk left but looking at it now I could crop it down some more.

So I think I will look at framing and see if I can make it tighter to my subject. I can see a white spec which I should of removed now