Help with portrait

My daughter has asked me for a portrait photograph to go on canvas.well ive taken some photos with my limited equipment and knowledge and have managed to find one out of the numerous amounts taken to use.ive made it black n white since a bright blue t-shirt seemed to attract the eye too much.and wanted a contasting finish but i'm not sure of the result so i'm hoping some critic from you guys may help me improve this shot.




b+w2 by dave-2, on Flickr

Hi Dave,
Using a background would help a lot.
Something like an old sheet. I bought some material from my local shop and it makes a huge difference. I like the photo,good pose.
Regards
Chris

thanks Chris,would you use a dark or light background in this situation?

I'm absolutely no portrait expert (or expert in anything else except mutilating my body) but this is pretty close. To improve it I'd raise the camera a little and shoot slightly above eye level then you'll lose the double chin effect. The lighting looks highly directional but effects are not too harsh. Bounce flash may improve it but that brings its own problems.

I'd chicken out and take them to sit amongst some autumn leaves on a bright but cloudy day...

Others here really know how to do this type of thing.

Yeah fire down to ASDA and get a cheap black/white bed sheet, they come in handy.

Plenty of info on the the web try searching for 'high & low key photography' in Google for some ideas & tips

thanks Andrew,good tip to get rid of those awful double chins.dont start me on lighting.i have a flash that i use wireless and that didnt fire reliably.seems it wasnt getting signal from camera infra-red.
dont look like theres any bright dry days ahead unfortunately.
thanks for your input.

dave-, the camera doesn't output any infra-red. What exactly is your set-up?

Hi Ken,with the k-r i used old pentax smc manual lens 50mm.used camera flash diffused with material and also used a centon fg105d flash gun (this will not fire attached to camera since it is ttl only)with homemade flash diffuser attached to it.
i have my doubts about this flash being faulty as i cant manualy adjust the focus and like i mentioned it sometimes dont fire even when the camera is facing it.

with the kr, you need not bother with a questionable flash unit... you got high iso abilities...
go shopping/scavenging.....

build yourself a lightstand:
link

and use either a simple clamp on light with a powerful cfl, or go with a paper chinese lantern and lightsocket..
any halogen lightsorce, standard bulb or if you can find wide or full spectrum cfls and you're set to go...

hi Don,thanks for the tips,thats a good and simple reflector.
i happen to have a two meter adjustable speaker stand in the shed.i'll dig it out.
will the low energy full spectrum bulbs be suitable?
ive seen a video on making a simple beauty lamp.may give that a go.