First time photographing a baby...

[CaitlinLeeann]

Newborn - 3 weeks old
Any suggestions of what I could have done better?

Camera: Canon Rebel XS
Set in portrait mode.

[ressalg]

Very cute baby. Were you going for a soft focus sort of look? I've looked and looked and I can't seem to find one area of this photo that is actually in focus.

My biggest suggestion would be to start learning to use your camera in manual mode. It might be a little scarey at first but, in the long run, it'll make a huge difference. The second biggest suggestion would be to watch which auto focus point your camera is selecting. My guess would be that in this instance, it selected to focus on the background or foreground.

[kleidascope]

Would like to see the original. It does appear out of focus or over processed. (?)
This is my personal preference, but not a huge fan of b/w with newborns unless it's a slight conversion, keeping it softer and more 'white than black'. Not sure if that makes sense.

[SusanH1970]

I pulled your EXIF for you (per the critique forum rules):

49mm
ISO 400
F/5.6
1/25

It's definitely out of focus, most likely due to camera shake at such a slow shutter speed. Try shooting in manual (I promise, it's not that scary! lol). Spot meter off the baby's cheek and check your in-camera meter, make sure it reads 0. Looks like the camera underexposed the baby and overexposed the white background. If you shoot in RAW, you can recover some of the blown highlights in post processing.

Up your ISO so you can use a faster shutter speed. I'm guessing you're using the kit lens, so you won't be able to open your aperture much more unless you shoot at a wider angle, but then you'll get distortion. Upping your ISO will give you more noise, but you can always run the photo through Noiseware (free community version here, though if you're on a Mac you're out of luck).

Hope this helps. Absolutely adorable baby!