Oh goodness-how to find something to critique about this photo?? It is beautiful! I love the composition, the soft light, the exposure, the expressions, etc! I, personally might add just a touch of contrast in post processing, but that’s just a personal preference. Love this! Great job! :)

First off, what beautiful subjects! The colors of their outfits and the green background are a great compliment. I might have pulled them away from the trees a bit more and opened my aperture up a bit more to produce some bokeh effect and maybe did some burning around bottom left/right but then again I might not have done a thing – great shot Marci!!

Love the soft expressions and the bold colors of their outfits against the uniform color of the background. One thing I might change is the composition. At the time of shooting, I might have pulled them away from the trees a bit and had mom (?) in a more natural stance, but I think if you crop into a portrait orientation cutting off mom’s butt to hide her unnatural posture, it would work wonders. It would also eliminate the sharpest of the pine needles.
Really terrific moment and gesture captured and interesting subjects. I can feel their affection for each other, which is a wonderful thing. :-)

I love the skin tones, looks perfect. The only thing I would do is move them away from the trees so the greenery blurrs out some more, as it might be a competing with the colorful outfits. I love the sharpness and soft lighting on the skin. Great pic!

I usually approach this “Critique Me” thing as a post-processing question…what can I do after the fact to improve the picture.
So…First, I love this and had to give it some thought. Someone above mentioned pulling them away from the tree to create bokeh. Totally good for in-camera. But for post, I am mainly a Lightroom user, so I would suggest using the Radial Filter in Lightroom 5. Circle the subjects (pull the outsides of the circle down to be more of an oval over them), then lower the Clarity and Sharpness so that the area other than the subjects in the oval get a little softer like bokeh. Perhaps even bump the shadows and lower Exposure in the Radial Filter as well for a natural vignetting to spotlight the subjects.
I would probably give the facial features some sharpening with the Adjustment Brush.
Other than that, skin tone is spot on and perfect focus and color!

Marci,
Great Image. I can really feel the connection between the pair. I also love the contrast of the subjects against the tree. I would have liked to see a little more catch lights in their eyes. Maybe by situating yourself above them a little more or having them turn a little until you could see the little twinkle.

Oh my these are beee-autiful girls!! Honestly, I LOVE this photo. The only thing I would change is the aperture…I’d open it up a little more to create some bokeh in the background. Otherwise perfect everything! Colors, soft lighting, natural looking contrast, composition, & best of all…you can feel the loveliness of the subjects emanating from this photo.

I love the how bright the colors are, the clarity, and how you can really feel the love between them! I would personally like some bokeh blur in the background…it could give it a more pro feel. Low aperture is a good way to achieve this. Very beautiful ladies, and a good job, Marci!! :)

I LOVE this picture! You can see the love and happiness in them. I wish there were more bokeh, so I would have tried to shoot at f/2.8 or so. The colors are great!

I so love this photo. There is no doubt about the love between them. Maybe next time try positioning yourself higher than them – so the lovely ladies have to look up. Love all the vibrant colors in their dresses! I too would have turned down the aperture, but that’s me. What a great shot and you should be proud of it!

I love this! The editing is spot on, the colors are good and there are no major flaws. Of course there is always room for improvement. Right now the pair is standing in a golden ratio. I would move them over just a bit to the left of the frame. Just to not be in the golden ratio. Although there is nothing wrong with that. I would also have shot at a more open aperture, to get rid of the distracting background. Also I noticed that you were shooting at ISO 1000 but the day was so sunny looking that, you might be confusing your camera by telling it you want more light in cause you shot at such an high ISO but then you tell it you want less light cause you are then closing down your aperture to f/7.1. I would drop my ISO down to 400 or lower, because you will begin to get noticeable grain/noise at the ISO you shot at. If you take that down you could shot at a more open f-stop without sacrificing image quality. But I think over all a very good.

Such a beautiful shot of beautiful subjects! The skin tones are spot on, and I love the colors of the clothing, and the greenery–the color accuracy is nice, and the jewel tones are striking. I agree with the other posts that mention the sharp focus of the branches and their needles does compete a little with the subjects. The f7.1 aperture isn’t open enough to blur them since they are on the same plane as the subjects–dropping the ISO to 400 or even 200 would allow you to open up the aperture by a couple of stops. But I’m just nitpicking here, there is so little to criticize about this photo. Good job and thanks for sharing!

This one’s hard to critique! I think the only thing would be the lower your aperature to blur more of the background but keep the ladies intact. Otherwise, the color is beautiful. A lovely picture!

Wow! This is gorgeous! I love the clarity and detail you can see in their faces and all their clothing. If I *HAD* to critique anything I would say lower the aperture so that you background fades away leaving your subjects as the sole focal point. I love the colors of this photo. Great job!

Thank you everyone for such kind words and wonderful feedback. I saw these two beauties at the park and asked them if I could photograph them…I just couldn’t help myself as they were so striking. My ISO was at 1000 from previous shooting and I forgot to dial it down thus the high ISO on such a sunny day. Now the ISO is the first thing I check before I shoot :-)