Hi,
I've started potrait photography a few months ago and trying to learn as much as I can, especially in low-ligh mode. I, took this shot after sunset with a high ISO and although I tried to reduce the luminance noise (at the cost of losing a bit of facial details), still there exist some noise. Although, I know it's subjective and context-based, I was curious to see if this amount of noise is generally acceptable by the community? Any other critique/comment about the shot is highly-appreciated. Thank you in advance for your valuable opinions.
I frankly do not care about the noise in the picture, in fact I usually add more in postproduction.
The important thing is not the amount of light, but the quality. I see your photo somewhat soft of focus and possibly the direction of the light was not the best because of the shadow under the eyes.
In low light situations noise is understandable.
Composition wise, I think a tighter frame would have been better. In my opinion i would like to see her upper body fill more of the frame. There is too much headroom as well in my opinion. Also be careful what limbs you cut where. You should avoid cutting at or very close to joints, such as the ankle (left side of the photo) and knee (right side of the photo) in this example.
Levels wise it would seem like you have too much black clipping resulting in loss of detail in the shadows (her hair) that could have probably been avoided when editing.
Lighting is not ideal, but it is to be expected given the circumstances.
Always be sure to focus on the eyes when doing a portrait. Sharpening a photo to compensate for lack of focus never works. Always take a burst of photos when shooting in low light (with a lower shutter speed), as the first photo will rarely be still given the movement of your hand when actuating the shutter button.