My 4 year old... Is Composition okay?

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This is my second critique post, I recieved some good feedback on my last one so I thought I would try another and hopefully recieve some more suggestions.
I had window light pouring in from camera right and behind me.
I used PSE 7 Raw converter to edit this. I believe I only clicked the auto correction tab and liked the results it gave me.Overall it brightened the whole photo. I few questions I have... Is the Composition okay? I know I cut off his hands but not sure if that kills the shot. Does the skin tone look normal or washed out? Anything that I could have done better? Any critique/ suggestiona are welcome. Thanks for your time.



Exif:
Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture f/2.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[graciousness]

Hi there, just me again

First thing that I noticed is the softness of the focus on his eyes. Actually, it's too soft to the point that I actually think it may just be a slight mis-focus. You do want to make sure that the eyes are in focus, but this is passable as it's not too bad.

The second thing that I noticed is the blur. Did you do any blur in post production? It just looks a bit fake, that you added the blur from his face down and at the background. Either that, or I'm not used to seeing that much dramatic fall off on the DOF on that lens.

I think his face is just slightly overexposed. Just slightly. Again, it would be nice to see the lighting coming from top instead of from the bottom as the brightness is concentrated on the lower part of his face.

I do think that the rest of the editing is ok, but could be more improved. It just feels a little flat and could use more contrast in colours/textures.

The hands are chopped off and yes, something to watch next time. Although it is hard with the 50mm lens and if you're working in a tight or awkward space/position. The hand chopping is ok, it doesn't bother me too much. Others may feel differently, though.

Composition - it would be nice to see something of yours that's not so centered. Aim to have subjects off centre (look at the rule of thirds, etc) as I do find it more interesting when subject is not centred. There are a few cases where centre works, but not all the time.

Cheers and hope this helps,

Grace

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Wow, 94 views and only one comment.
Thank you Grasiousness for taking the time to respond. It really does help to hear others point of view.
Not sure what happened with the soft focus on his eyes when I composed I focused on his right eye. By softness, does that mean that his eyes do not look as sharp as they should be?
No, no blur added in post production the only thing I did to this one was use the raw converter set to auto adjust.
I was thinking his face was a bit overexposed too maybe I should try it again but dial back the brightness, play with contrast and increase saturation just a bit. Does that sound about right?
Can you suggest anything as far as what to do to for adding more texture? I'm a little lost as to how I achieve that.
I will work on composition for in the future.
I'll include a link to the original sooc incase you would like to take a look.
225-sooc | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thanks again for all your helpful insight.
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[karen_s]

First impression, I like. He's got a great little smile and he seems connected to you.

After the second look (he's so cute you have to take a second look )...

His hair looks a little dark and filled in. I just don't think there was enough light on it to bring out the details. Doesn't kill the image for me though, just a nit picky thing.

His eyes do seem a smidge soft on the larger version on Flickr. I'm not sure why other than maybe 2.0 is not quite the sweet spot of this lens? You might try experimenting with narrowing the aperture one or two more stops. A friend has the 50 1.4 and says he tends to narrow 3-4 stops from its widest before he's happy with the sharpness. It could also be that you had a very shallow depth of field and any movement away or towards your subject might have been just enough to throw it off.

For me, the centered subject as a whole works. His eyes, the focal point, do fall on or near the top third so that helps.

You mentioned the hands and I think you are right to avoid that. However, the little stubs are somewhat blurred and that seems to keep me from concentrating on them. Have you tried a tighter crop? You might experiment with cropping out the arms entirely. Just a thought.

The face just seems a bit flat as far as light. Maybe too much light? That might be contributing to the lack texture you speak of. I agree with graciousness too that the light might be better if it came from a little higher up.

That's about it.

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Thank you Karen_s, really appreciate your input.
That's a good idea I might try and crop this one to get rid of the hands issue.