What a cute little girl! I like how you used a low depth of field to put the emphasis on her — you can see blurred portions of the blanket in the foreground too, which I like. I might have tried to either changing the angle or trying to capture her attention so her eyes were looking right at the camera (probably easier said than done, huh?) and so her fingers aren’t chopped off at the edge of the frame. I think the soft color palette you used is wonderful for this shot of a baby girl.

Hi Stefanie ~ what a cute little face on this gal! I like the feeling of wonder that you’ve captured in her face. I think the image would have been enhanced further if her eyes were looking outwards towards the viewer. Your main focus point seems to have fallen on the nose instead of the eyes. I’ve been having good luck lately by using Back Button focusing. Also, I keep my Canon in AI Servo (Continuous Focus – Nikon) thus a press and release of the back AF button (AE lock/FE lock button on my Rebel) (and recompose) will give me the equivalent of one shot, press and hold for continuous focus, and don’t press to go to manual AF. Pretty sweet deal – access to all three modes without changing anything! It is something to check out if you don’t already use it. I would probably try blurring the two (or 3) fingers that are involved w/ the edge of the frame, as that would take attention away from them. I would also desaturate the pink in the blanket behind the child slightly. That would help that area sit back further and not draw any attention, since saturated colors advance while muted color versions recede. I’d also burn that little top righthand corner (v. minor detail). I really like this composition and the color harmony that you’ve achieved in this photo!

I’m not sure how to fix it as I’m a beginner too, but her skin tone seems a tad off. The whole thing could use a touch of warmth too, so that may help with her skin. Adorable baby and great shot otherwise! :)

After looking again, I would also suggest making sure the blanket isn’t blocking the baby’s face next time either. :)

Love the catch-lights in her eyes. I would have focused on her eyes more and retouched the skin tone to take out the blotchy reds. You did great with the lighting!

I love the beautiful colors of this photo! The grey and the pink really work well together. It appears as if one eye is more in focus than the other, so I might try to either back up a little bit or close up your aperture a little, maybe to f/3.5 or 4 to get the whole face in really sharp focus. Such a cute little baby with such beautiful eyes! Good job!

I really like the catchlights in her eyes. And what gorgeous baby blues she has! I like how you used DOF to make the foreground and background blur it really draws the attention to her face. I think what I would have done differently is the angle. At this angle you are looking up her nose it might be better straight on or to come from a little above the nose. I might also have touched up some redness on the babies forehead and purple on the arms. But that does depend on the look you were trying to achieve. To me it doesn’t look like a lot of post processing was done (nothing wrong with that). Overall it looks like you know how to use your camera to achieve what you want. Great job!!

I love how the blanket creates a little big of leading lines from the corner to her face, and how she isn’t looking directly at the camera. It makes we wonder “what is over there?”, and a little mystery is good :)

The image does look a little cool. Maybe try warming it up. Maybe it is just the compression on the image, but the eyes look a little bit out of focus.

I love how you can just feel the soft, sweetness of baby days when you look at this pic :-). And nice bokah. I’d love to see her looking into the frame or at something in a more focused way; she looks like she’s re-orienting her focus on something. Very pretty eyes with nice catchlight.

Hi Stephanie! I love your use of soft colors in this image. They do a great job of keeping the focus on the baby. One thing I would have changed is the baby’s face angle towards the camera so that it isn’t blocked by the blanket. A couple of ways to do this is to shoot from a different angle or slip something under the blanket to bring the baby up just slightly. I do really love the way you captured the wonder in her expression!

What a cutie! I really like the DOF because it draws us right to the details of her cute face. I think I would have stuffed another pillow under her head side so it was up and changed angle a little to make sure her eyes were at the camera. However, she is obviously looking at mama which makes it a sweet moment the way it is. Love the catchlight in her pretty eyes.

I love the catch lights in her eyes. Something that might improve the picture would be to show both her arms. Very cute colors.

Lovely! What a cutie! Love the DOF and the colors. I agree with other commenters here that I’d like to see her gaze directed towards the camera, distance gazing is beautiful but not always easy with babies this young. I personally don’t mind odd crops (fingers, etc) because to me the hand isn’t the subject, the baby is… the focus is on her face not her appendages… I’m nortorious for odd crops. Keep up the good work! :)

I also want to say how much I love this community. I LOVE how everyone gives such gentle critiques on this forum. I’m a photog and have been for years so often I see mediocre photogs critiquing other mediocre photogs in such a harsh and rude fashion, but on here everyone is so nice, newbies and pros alike! :)

I would suggest bringing the red tones down as her face has a lot of red in it. Her hands are cut off which is strange looking. I think you got good catches in her eyes although they are not perfectly in focus. The focus fell to her nose which is making the farthest part of her face and head out of focus. You can try to fix this buy moving your focus point or even just opening the f stop up a little more to get more in focus while you practice. Even though most say to get her to look at you , I like the way she is looking off…it’s not so “standard” and makes me wonder what she is looking at.

First, beautiful little girl and great catch lights in her eyes.
I would adjust the color tone because it seems the pink in the blanket is making her pink too. I would rotate the image vertically or even on an angle.
Keep practicing, babies are not easy to take pictures of and take a lot. I really like images of babies in their natural positions.

Great job with the catchights! They really make the eyes sparkle. I think the angle is working against you here as we can’t see what has her attention and it’s shot a bit from above. Getting right down to her level and either trying to get her looking at the camera (hard I know!) or including what she’s looking at might have made for more engagement for the viewer. I like the soft DOF of the background and you’ve got a nice colour combo and a good job of not including a lot of “clutter”. This is a really hard age to photograph as they are not sitting up yet! Keep clicking, she’s a cutie all right.

Hi Stephanie!

What a great photograph and subject! I also agree with everyone about the catchlight in her eyes, stunning! As far as getting the baby’s attention (hard I know) have you ever seen http://www.cameracreatures.com? they are small colourful attachments for your lens that make it look less like a scary piece of machinery, and more like an eye catching toy! (there are a bunch of these things all over etsy as well). The pastels in this image are great, however, if you look closely, you can see that the background and the blanket are pulling out the same colours in the baby’s face and skin. As stated above, try desaturating the blanket a bit and warming up the photo, this will (hopefully) give less of a cool grey look to an otherwise perfect baby. You depth of filed is great, the only other thing I would change is your angle and your focus. In terms of angle, the baby’s face is a bit obstructed by the blanket, and since the eyes are looking above, my interest goes to “what is she looking at?”. By slightly lifting your camera you can avoid the obstructed face and her eyes will be more on you! In therms of focus, as stated above, since your catchlight is working so well for you here, milk it girl! Have the focus on her eyes rather than her nose to create an eye popping (pun intended) image with her beautiful blues that will also create a different colour focus (since most of the image is pink and grey [her clothing and the background]).
Awesome job, babies are difficult subjects to photograph sometimes, but you seem to have the hang of it!

Keep on shooting! -Practice makes perfect!

When I look at this picture, the main focal point I believe should be her brilliant baby blues. However, my eyes stop short and attach to the pink blanket near her forehead! Love the vibrant colors! Gorgeous Baby Girl!

What a cute little girl! I like the vibrant colors with her pink blanket and blue eyes! If it was my own picture, I think I would warm it up a bit in lightroom, to help the facial tones, but I like that the focus is drawn in on her face. One thing I would probably do a little differently is focus on her beautiful eyes, but that is totally up to the photographer capturing the image, if you want it focused on her petite little lips, or her baby blue eyes, either way, she is a doll. :)

A real Cute baby….

Tough to critique anyone, When God knows I am not a good photographer.

A couple of comments, post process skin tone just a little , re-position so Babies full lower cheek is visible and as someone else said show her full hands.

My comments are minor stuff…I still think it is a very cute and awesome photo….Love babies..

Thanks for the site…I love it…learn something every time I look, which I try to do everyday.

tom mewborn
new port richey, fla

Cute subject and I quite like the angle you have used. I would bump up the exposure a TAD, even out the baby’s skin, and perhaps frame it so the little poppets hand was either ‘all in’ or not in frame at all. I feel like focus isn’t BANG on (perhaps on her nose or lips but not quite on the eyes?… (might be that I can’t zoom in and the file is small) Good catchlights. :)

The DOF here is very good! What a cute girl! The only thing I’d do is to work a bit with the post processing, brightening the photo, giving a ‘peach’ tone for the skin and getting rid with the ‘red blotchies’ (nose and forehead). Also, I would rotate a bit the image, 15 or 20˚ CW and crop it. By the way, my girl had a very similar dress!

HI! Your little girl is darling! I would move up your camera just a tad bit to fully see her cute face. Maybe pull the blanket out more to fill in the space(behind the baby), I totally understand if it is not possible. I love love the catch light in her eyes!

I like the depth of field you used on this shot. It really brings the focus to her cute little face. I agree with some of the previous posts that some post processing would help with the skin tone. I think warming it up would help focus the shot on her pretty eyes. Great job on the catch lights!

I love those big, blue eyes and the catchlights you captured. The image looks a little cool to me and the angle of her body looks a bit awkward. An editing option with the image may be to rotate it clockwise so that her body is in the lower-right corner of the frame. There are so many sweet baby features–eyes, mouth, hands, captured in this photo!

Cute baby girl! I’d love to see her whole hand in the frame, I noticed a little finger chop there. Something I really work on myself! She almost looks as she’s sinking into something. Try shooting from above or something with a firmer surface. You could also try tilting your camera to see how it looks on an angle. The color is very cool and it looks like it could be brightened up some. I can’t tell if the focus is a little soft. Keep that shutter speed up so you can stop motion. Great job! Keep it up!

I love the catch lights in her pretty blue eyes! Try to remember not to cut off the limbs and the color is a little cool. I like the depth of field you got going, too. =)

What a cutie! Love her eyes, would have focused more on them. The colour combination of pinks and greys is soft and ideal as the grey fades in the background. I would probably have gently introduced a soft cushion under her, from mid torso up as I find it easier to appreciate a baby’s face when at a slight angle……it also gives the face more symetry. Then again, with babies you have to capture the moment….this coming from a novice who’ s probably photographed her kids in unimaginable positions…but was surprised at some results :). God bless her xxx

What a sweet little girl! I love her bright eyes and wide open mouth. Something interesting must have been going on in the background. I would love to see you put her on her back and take a shot of her looking up at you. The lighting seems muddy. I’d find a nice big window and use the filtered light (not direct sun spot) and try this again. Also, I’m a big eye focuser and the focus on the eyes seems a bit off. In this situation, I would have upped the ISO and closed your aperture down a little to make your focal plane a little wider so that both eyes might be in focus. Or if you could have backed up more at 2.2 it might be fine too. I am loving that blanket too.

Cute Baby! Love the colors in the image. The only think I noticed is the focus is on the nose and not the eyes. I wish the eyes were a little more sharp.

The moment is captured very well ans I often like images where the subject is not looking at the lens. I have started using back button focusing and I prefer using that to clicking the half shutter to focus.

Sweet baby. I would invest in a facial software. That will take care of that “angel kiss” between the brows. Love the one I purchased a couple of years ago..was a good investment. I feel like the blanket competes for attention here..maybe something simplier. I’m sure this is one of many you took….look for one with all of the hands in the frame…but a different crop might save this one.

This photo makes my heart melt, such a doll baby. Great bokah- I like that some of the blanket is in focus. I would have tried to get a little more of her face in focus & pull back to get a little more of her hands in the picture.

I don’t mind that she’s looking up- gives the impression that she is alert and aware of her surroundings; just taking it all in! I love that you positioned her so the light catches her eyes- great natural positioning.

What an adorable baby! I love the way you caught the catchlights in her eyes, they’re such a pretty blue. I love how you got some of the blanket in focus, but to me, I think the bright pink stripes compete a little bit with her face. Also, the purple cheetah print of her dress is a little distracting too, and I personally would try to keep the background and other elements of the photo a little more neutral. Other than that, great job! I love how you captured a an innocent moment. Such a sweet girl, she looks really intelligent and adorable.

I love this picture! I am a bigger and don’t know everything but I think you should’ve gotten the blanket away from her face so you could see her entire beautiful face. The picture is beautiful! Her eyes are so blue and gorgeous!