Ah yes the open hand can look straigned and will detract from the face. At it's worse the hand can match the color of the face and make the model seem like she has a swollen jaw or the hand palm will reflect the light creating a stobe - flash effect. In this case the hand is darker than the face so you still focus on the face but what if the hand was really dark? It would look like she was leaning a black triangle against her head. I don't know I think the close may be more visually appealing. OH. And all of the open hand conplaints was stuff I made up. As a joke. I'm glad you didn't crop her away. Bsteph