Please critique this photo? - 1

So one of my friends wanted me to take her senior photos recently, and I've been wanting to try some portrait stuff for a while now. I have other images than this one obviously, but I would love some critique on this shot and what I'm doing wrong/right. It was shot on a Nikon d3200.

Not bad; just left and right areas are unfocusly disturbing and you could frame a bit lower

1) The composition is too centered.

2) Crop off everything below the hem of her shirt OR re-take and back up to include her legs and feet.

3) The very out of focus trees at the sides are distracting. It would be different if it was out of focus foliage instead of two strong out of focus vertical lines.

This should help you:
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/improve-your-outdoor-portraitsbrtips-pro-lighting-posing-and-more

Sorry, very amateurish looking.

Spend some time learning about good portraiture here and you will not have to be asking for critique about your work. You will know when it is good or bad.

http://www.lumitouch.com/benstudiotutorial/rules.html

A bit snapshotty. Her face is centred, and the out-of-focus timber pier supports (not trees, trees have bark on them, and in any case the location is revealed in the next shot in the sequence) are a distraction. Lighting is flat, not much in the way of modelling. Ok-ish.

Maybe next time zoom out to get her whole body, or zoom in to get just her upper half
when you take a photo and peoples limbs are missing it looks awkward

There's nothing wrong with centering a portrait. With a portrait the Rule of thirds is that the eyes are usually on the top third line. I do find the out of focus edges a distraction, but I like the inside part that is sharp. I think I would shift her so that she were not flat on to the camera to flatter her shape more. I would give you an A for effort here.

First issue: You have tried to frame the subject with the two beams on each side, the problem is that since the rest of the picture is sharp, the blurring of the supports is distracting. If you want to keep that composition, nothing wrong with it ( Yes, some people slavishly quote the rule of thirds and forget about frmaing, leading lines, S curves, the magic spiral etc; rule of thirds is only ONE of the rules of composition! I blame the slavish devotion to the rule of thirds amongst many DSLR users today on the free training courses the manufacturers give out with their consumer cameras- all teach the rule of thirds since it is so generically applicable, but few study after those courses and learn more techniques). However, close your aperture down and sharpen them up, it will improve the composition in this case

Second issue: Cutting off of limbs. There's a general rule in fashion/portraiture- don't cut off limbs. It makes people looking at the picture unconfortable- few could tell you why though… (Just one fo those things the psychologists have noted LOL) So next time either chop off just below waist level (not exactly at waist level) or just above- the same issue as with limbs- it makes people look stunted if you cut off exactly ay waist level. Look at half body shots of men, you will see that generally they show belt level and a bit below- not exactly at belt level or just above. A place where you have unconsciously applied this technique is withher hands- the whole hads can't be seen, but since part of them can be seen it looks natural.