Irrespective of the location Brian, getting out, practicing and trying to hone your skills is paramount, it's the only way to learn.
If you can add re crop, FF, slight crop, BIG crop always helps, as you may not have needed the 1.4 as you have the px's, just crop. The file is always better without a 1.4, it only magnifies, no moving parts, but at that distance can enhance any camera shake, was this supported ie bean bag?
The head appears reasonably sharp, but again all clouded by the darks. Mid range on the ISO and this is where knowing PP you can make some changes in camera to gain more SS, but then you would need to push the PP side and can the file take it? As presented I feel it's certainly a third of a stop under. Rather than increasing the EV you can just open the file in PP without an issue. Like the defused BKG the prime delivers, but shooting lower I feel may have offered a better angle, albeit
'test shooting', from a window? DoF looks spot on, FP looks right.
Re PP:
- Open it up by a third
- Reduce the Blacks etc as they are blocked
- Look at the Histogram in the Dev module, it shows the blacks & shadows chocked, delivering zero detail
- Reduce the blue
- Crop at the foot and loose the OOF vegetation
Brian, always good to add your thoughts to other posts as per Avian, we suggest 3-5 to one post.
TFS
Steve