Too much noise?

[Prue]

Canon 50D
ISO 100
f/3.5
1/50

This is a photo of my son on a recent family day out.

There seems to be too much noise.

Can you critique composition, lighting, anything??

I am looking forward to going on the train again!!

[wulf]

Noise isn't visible at this size and your permissions are set so I can't see the full size version.

Overall, it is a decent portrait although the focus looks to be a bit off (his eyes seem soft compared to the collar of his shirt). Since he is looking out of the frame, I think you could afford to have him over to the left a bit further - as an alternative, you could get him to glance towards you.

Wulf

[Doug Sundseth]

FWIW, I'm not seeing noise on the version you have here (and the Flickr link is private).

I see the same softness that Wulf does. I'd consider closing down the aperture to get better DoF, since it doesn't seem to me that you need blurring for separation.

I like the light on your son quite a bit. There's a nice ratio between key and fill. You might consider having your son look a bit more away from you* to get a bit more Rembrandt-style lighting. I think having his focus out the train window could work as well.

There's a fairly nasty specular highlight on the wood above his head, though. You might be able to kill that a bit next time if you were to block the window up high, or you might be able to frame slightly differently to keep it out the final image.

All that said, I really like this image. Were he my son, I would have no hesitation about printing this and putting it on my desk to show off.

* Yes, I know that's the opposite of Wulf's advice. It's art, man**.

** That would be the non-gender-specific "man", right there.