[greenster93]

This is a picture of Mairead my sister in law. 
Picture taken with Cannon 5d mark II on a cannon lens 70 - 200mm  at 70mm  iso 100 shutter 1/250 aperture F4

[EdMak]

Hi,  my monitor shows this, to me, as a bit dowdy, may have been your intention!

The chair back is a distraction, again, to me.

This is a P/S edit.   Ed.

[greenster93]

Hi,  my monitor shows this, to me, as a bit dowdy, may have been your intention!

The chair back is a distraction, again, to me.

This is a P/S edit.   Ed.

Thanks Ed i created two layers lightened the back ground and put a mask on the subject to get a bit more contrast then applied a soft light filter. It looks like my brush strokes are showing through on the mask.

[dlpruk]

Hi,  my monitor shows this, to me, as a bit dowdy, may have been your intention!

The chair back is a distraction, again, to me.

This is a P/S edit.   Ed.

Thanks Ed i created two layers lightened the back ground and put a mask on the subject to get a bit more contrast then applied a soft light filter. It looks like my brush strokes are showing through on the mask.

A simpler way might have been just to crop the chair back out and also get rid of the bra strap that I'm sure Mairead didn't realise was showing. I tweaked the colours too while I was in Lightroom

[MrB]

The skin colours look most natural in Ed's version.

Cheers.
Philip

[dlpruk]

The skin colours look most natural in Ed's version.

Cheers.
Philip

Quite agree, but I was simply saying that cropping might be an easier way to lose the chair and that the bra strap
should go too. All I did with the colours was to suggest differentiating the hair from the background. Sorry I only did that crudely and didn't take the time to worry about the skin too but I was just suggesting things the OP might like to think about.

[EdMak]

Epilogue!  Ed.

[greenster93]

The skin colours look most natural in Ed's version.

Cheers.
Philip

Good idea never though to crop in close

[dlpruk]

The skin colours look most natural in Ed's version.

Cheers.
Philip

Good idea never though to crop in close

[EnglishBob]

I like the pose and the smile looks natural, I might take out some from both the left and right, to remove some of the chair and cut down on the green dead space. Your exposure would of benefitted from some fill flash or a reflector to kick a little more light into the subjects face and create a stronger catch light in the eyes. Nicely done.