Need Your Help

[mellowinman]

Please critique these three versions of this photo, and be as harsh and unforgiving as possible. You can not and will not hurt my feelings at all, no matter what you say, but do try and be helpful.

thank you

[Mad Aussie]

Although wearing a wedding dress is hardly 'casual' I would call these 'casual portraits' because I feel the pose is casual (which isn't meant to sound like a bad thing) and her hair is quite messy.

The 1st shot looks like you've added some sort of soft filter/technique in PP which hasn't worked for me as it's removed all sharpness, blown out the skin tones and the dress and yellow flower as well.

The 2nd is the best in my opinion. It has the most natural colour balance of the three I think.
Sharpness is lacking on the face, especially the eyes.
The background, while pleasant, is competing with the subject. A wider aperture and/or moving the subject closer to you and away from the flora would have isolated her nicely and turned that background into an appealing bokeh.
The exposure is still a half stop at least too bright and has robbed some of the detail in the brightest whites in that dress. Under-exposing slightly and then brightening in PP might have been a better move.