We talked about doing this, so here goes:
Below are two pictures from a recent shoot. Besides resizing them, they are pretty much straight out of the camera. Browsers aside (which tend to also desaturate colors),
1. What do you see wrong with these images?
2. What would you do with them? (Would you abandon them (delete) or try to correct them in Photoshop? – If you think they are saveable, how would you correct them.
My “answers” are posted. (That’s the password btw) 🙂 
Thank you to everyone who played. I think one of the biggest lessons here is how different everyone’s eye is. No one was wrong because these are all personal tastes. It goes to show that a photographer can be as creative with editing as they can be with the camera.
These are my thoughts:
On image 1- Initially this was a “throw away”, meaning I didn’t want to waste anytime on it. My main problem with it was her hair. It was just a little windy and the wind made her hair messed up. I also didn’t like the position of her left eye- to me it was compositionally weak. As noted, her head looks a little large, but I like this, it tends to make the model’s body appear thinner. In the past I would spend a serious amount of time trying to “save” it in photoshop by combing her hair. Now my strategy is to quickly decide if it can be saved quickly (yes, quickly on both) if not, get rid of it. This is why it is so important to constantly change the shot, pose, lighting, position- it gives you many more options to choose from.
The Solution: Crop to Compose – Crop that mess hair out, put the eye on a power point. Done!
Image 2 – What I didn’t like: More than anything, the lack of separation of Brittany’s shirt with her background- I couldn’t stand how her left sleeve was “blending in” and you couldn’t see where the background started. In fact, the whole background was faded. I thought we could do more with the pants and a little more contrast.
The Solution: Slight contrast bump, Burn the background (burn tool) , and lollipop the blue pants. Took about 20 seconds.
See final images below
Would you guys like to do more of these types of lessons? 
Hi Michael, shooting at this angle shows that the person’s head is much larger than her body. I would abandon it as I think the client would not find it pleasing at all.
1. The eyes aren’t the focal point, the hair is and attention is drawn there. You could blur the hair more to help, but you can’t really fix a lacking of focus. Also I’d have preferred to have her entire head and possibly the shoulder included. Not really fixable.
2. The composition leads to the lower left corner, making it an uncomfortable picture. Cropping her into center seemed to helped dramatically, filling the frame with her entirely. Fixable.
#1: She looks like she is missing her left arm, like an amputee. Crop tighter to the face.
#2: She looks like she is missing part of her left leg – another amputee shot. Crop tighter half-way through her left thigh which will crop half-way through her right shin, which is acceptable when cropping (no cropping at joints).
I believe that her left eye is slightly out of focus, don’t think you can fix that…
The ear ring on number 2 is enough for me to say scrap the photo. If you had to attempt to fix it in photoshop because that was the best picture I’d stick to making aps. J/K
Great item, and would love to see more along these lines!
These are quite helpful. Thank you! I enjoy understanding other photographer’s thought process. Since I’m not so "techie," I am always trying to get a better shot and spend less time in front of the computer. This has helped see how quick changes can be on my images with good results. Keep up the good work.
Michael, excellent post, and YES! please have more of these, if possible! What I would like to see more of though, is how to photograph normal people. I’m tired of seeing how to photograph beautiful people with nice curves and nicely chiseled faces. My clients have big noses, big cheeks, big foreheads, and "plus-size", and my job is to minimize weaknesses and enhance strengths. It would be great to learn how to do that. Sooo, next DVD for you??? =) I’ll pre-order it right now.
Great post Michael. I would like more. The only thing In noticed in picture two is cutting off her right toes.
Image 1- is a little over exposed which makes shirt fade into the background and part of her face is a little out of focus. But, I still like it. I do not know if you can correct either, but I would not toss it.
Image 2, again looks a little over exposed. Does she have a ponytail holder on her wrist? I do not like the pose… shot head on, her left leg looks out of proportion with her body and looks weird without her foot being visible, her watch is blown out. .. her whole left side is less sharp than her right side. I would scrap it. What a fun idea, great exercise!
Thank you for posting these.
I would agree with another here and suggest this topic for a future DVD.
Lesson I learned here was use of post shot tools for correction. I would have cropped both images. A good day – new lesson learned.
Thank you.
I think both pictures are beautiful. Your model is stunning. I even like that her shirt is fading into the background. It gives the picture a wispy soft affect. The color of her jeans is striking against her skin tone. I think your too hard on these photos.