I think you deserve a bit more feed-back and some credit. The top one is lovely, with very nice light and a beautiful gentle overall feel. The bottom one is also nice with gentle soft light, although I think the light is a bit too frontal. The close-in perspective afforded by the use of a 40mm lens, I would assume (FF equivelant), is certainly not classic but I think it has a modern look to it, which works with this pretty young girl, partly because she is looking directly at us through your lens, and that being in close engages us with her, making a connection that is harder to make at great er distance as required when shooting with an 85mm lens, the classic portrait lens. You broke the rules, you got away with it and that is likley because you have a good idea what you are doing and you were able to make the girl comfortable even working close in. The very shallow dof is lovely. The only thing I don't really like is the shadow on the wall to the right, which looks kind of amateurish but taken as a whole a nice pair of shots that don't work as a set because they are so different in style despite the common light quality and subject. But two nice individual images.
The top one is absolutely lovely. Fantastic job.
I have to agree with the Tom's comment on the second photo though. The distortion at that focal length really detracts from what would be an otherwise very strong image. What I see is that her forehead is too far down, making it look much bigger than it likely is. If you shoot from a little higher and have her tilt her face up towards you, it would look much more even. You could likely even use that same focal length if you're limited by space. Small tilts can make a big difference.
Also, I would rotate the image clockwise about 3-5 degrees. She looks a little askew.
Curious what focal length you were at for the 2nd one. Image looks kinda distorted.
Funny tho, the EXIF shows 40mm for the first image and 70mm for the second...
I think you deserve a bit more feed-back and some credit. The top one is lovely, with very nice light and a beautiful gentle overall feel. The bottom one is also nice with gentle soft light, although I think the light is a bit too frontal. The close-in perspective afforded by the use of a 40mm lens, I would assume (FF equivelant), is certainly not classic but I think it has a modern look to it, which works with this pretty young girl, partly because she is looking directly at us through your lens, and that being in close engages us with her, making a connection that is harder to make at great er distance as required when shooting with an 85mm lens, the classic portrait lens. You broke the rules, you got away with it and that is likley because you have a good idea what you are doing and you were able to make the girl comfortable even working close in. The very shallow dof is lovely. The only thing I don't really like is the shadow on the wall to the right, which looks kind of amateurish but taken as a whole a nice pair of shots that don't work as a set because they are so different in style despite the common light quality and subject. But two nice individual images.
The top one is absolutely lovely. Fantastic job.
I have to agree with the Tom's comment on the second photo though. The distortion at that focal length really detracts from what would be an otherwise very strong image. What I see is that her forehead is too far down, making it look much bigger than it likely is. If you shoot from a little higher and have her tilt her face up towards you, it would look much more even. You could likely even use that same focal length if you're limited by space. Small tilts can make a big difference.
Also, I would rotate the image clockwise about 3-5 degrees. She looks a little askew.
On the 2nd image, the loop of hair on top is a bit distracting to me. Otherwise, well lit good looking shots. :)
She looks like a double amputee in the top image and the bottom one needs a lot of help to be interesting.