Portraiture at the advanced amateur and pro level involves or should involve attention to the smallest detail. That is the reason that most pros have a make-up person who works with them. That is also the reason that many of them take a lot of time to set up a shot just so.

Given that, when we look at a portrait, the first thing we look for, is how the basic important details were handled and whether they could have been done better. For a top pro photograher in portraiture (who took the shot) the opinion that it "works" fits the old expression of "damning with faint praise". It should do more than that by not leaving any details at all, open to critique.

With that in mind, posing, camera angle, framing, and hair which are basics for a pro in portraiture could have been handled much better and that is not a personal opinion but rather an assessment based on the accepted standards for portraiture at this level.

Hope you understand where I am coming from.

Tegan