portrait for critique

[phillip_denat]

Hi, I am new to photography and would be grateful for critique on the following portrait of my daughter.

Canon EOS 550D
EF50MM f/1.8 II
Exp 1/125 F/2.0
Focal Length 50mm
ISO 400
Flash did not fire


Thanks,
Phil

[JFSanders]

She is a bit underexposed and the focus is on her hand not her eyes. While the lens will go to f/1.8 it is generally not a good idea to push it to the limit. The composition is ok and could be better by bringing the face in tighter.

Try it again at f/4 or even f/8 and use a bounce flash if needed to get more light around your subject. ISO 400 is a good starting point and may get the best image. With the extra light you may be able to go faster on the shutter speed and this will help with getting a sharp focus.

Pretty baby. Thanks for posting and good luck.

[Doug Sundseth]

In addition to what Jim said, I'll also mention that your white balance is off. It's easy enough to fix in post, especially if you shoot in RAW, but it really needs to be fixed. (It looks like he did just that in his sample photo, though I don't see that he mentioned that.

That said, I like the expression you captured, which would be much harder to fix.

[phillip_denat]

Thanks both appreciate the comments. It was the expression I loved. I did tweak the photo already but the comments will help going forward.

I took a few more shots at the time, this is one of my other favs. Same exif data.


Phil