Halloween Pic of the Niece

[augiecrazy8]

Took this picture of my niece over a weekend near Halloween. Was trying to frame her a bit while she was working on decorating pumpkins. Question(s) is about composition. Do the pumpkins take away from the shot or frame her as intended? Also, would you make any changes to the background? Does it take away from her? Thanks

EXIF:
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[Stryker]

I don't mean to sound rude but TBH, this composition does not work for me. It looks like she is in bed with the sheets pulled up to her chin and someone placed a lot of pumpkins on the bed. There is no sense of "working on decorating pumpkins", since you cannot see her hands doing anything. Maybe you should have framed it from the side a bit, say a 2/3rds shot off to the right, that shows her doing something with a pumpkin. Do you have one from that angle? I'd like to see that.

[curelightwounds]

The background's fine. I love the stark, clashing colors back there.

+1 for what Stryker said. I have no idea what's going on and the floating head look is a little weird. How were the things arranged such that it ended up that way?

[kristenh]

i think i can see what you were after- i think if the pumpkins had been much much smaller and her head much much larger- the pumpkins could provide a nice leading line to your main subject. that would be very nice. although the pps don't mind the background, i kind of do. would have tried to arrange myself so that the black was behind her.

as long as we're talking pumpkins- toddler hands are so cute that it could have been so nice to have a shot of her hefting one. do you have one like that to share?