So once again, like everything else, how can we make it better? No matter what level you're at, this is good control of light, good editing, we haven't blocked up the shadow so the shadow details there. You've got a black dog, you've got a kind of an ivory tan sweater, you've got all the detail there. So the person, kudos to the maker for hanging onto that detail in this. But once again, how do we make it better? And just like the last image we looked at, I'm going to get on you for cropping. I may... Sometimes I'll give you a latitude on cropping at the head. I do this all the time. I like it because top of the head sometimes just gets in the way. This gets us into the shot.

This image is very sloppy. Nothing against the maker. We have decent lighting, a hair light, and some nice light dripping on the shoulder, but there’s other issues with this portrait. When I say something like this is sloppy, I’m talking about retouching. So, from a retouching perspective, if you look closer, you’ll see what I’m talking about here.

We've got one goal; help you get better by learning from the mistakes of others. There is no other goal, no other agenda here. I am not trying to hammer photographers or embarrass photographers. It really is about giving you constructive, honest, and direct feedback.

Guys, sometimes I just feel like I’m being Punk’d. This is not a portrait. This is very bad. And I mean it with the nicest of sincerity. It’s just not a portrait. If you are the maker, and you submitted this, and you really want feedback, I’m going to give you feedback, okay?

You've got a choice to make. You always have to ask yourself, the space that's being left when we leave some negative space, some head room, is it helping or hurting the image? And you know, when photographers get together and they start critiquing stuff like this, if it's not helping, the argument is always made that it's hurting, right?

A for effort here. I see what you’re trying to do, but this is poorly executed. You’re trying to drop the kids in, all to the same scene, looking the same way, and clearly our little child on the far right, who is not listening to what’s going on, is more than likely the problem child.