[Wannabe]

Feel free to be brutally honest.. trying to learn, so honesty works for me!

[Whipspeed]

Don't personally do much portrait work, but here's my bit. I don't mind the tight crop, but feel that it would have been better to have her looking up and towards the camera. Babies always have lovely eyes, so that would show them up. She would also be then looking into the frame rather than out of it. Tones are nice and soft which suits the subject with no harsh shadows. I would have also cloned out the scratch on her nose.
Hope that helps, but I'm sure someone who knows more about portraits will be along soon.

[Boofers]

You did good to grab this one as babies will suddenly move. I take it that you were attracted to the interested look on the babies face, parents do that anyway. I am drawn to the chin, highlight on the lip,,looks ok, but it also looks like a drippy mouth. Maybe I'm to picky so it will be OK. If it were mine I would have shot atleast twenty shots to choose from when I was drawn to this angle. If your prepared, drop your camera in burst mode if your like a hunter and want that baby face you love so much. Processing is good for me, and I don't mind the crop.
It does however look a little better with a crop of the top only, about half way to the eye.

[stepheno]

A good effort. Cropped heads don't do it for me unless you crop in very close to the eyes. Flat heads just don't look right. The pose is good but even better would be the eyes looking at the camera and the nose is lost in the contour of the cheek. Worth cloning the stray hairs above the left (baby's right) eye. Nice soft tones. But this is opportunist and sometimes you get what you can.

[Charlotte]

Technically this is excellent work, Wannabe

All except the crop. Question for you: Do you know why you cropped the top of his/her (never can tell the difference with babies of this age) head off? I'm guessing the answer is "not really" but that you've seen others do it + thought you'd try the same thing. Unfortunately it hasn't worked well here. This type of crop (top of head) is used in a particular type of portrait ... where the eyes are fully open + looking at the camera; the crop effectively directs attention to the eyes. It does this by cropping out excess BG + hair/hat etc. which might draw attention. However in this case, the effect is completely lost because (a) baby's eyes are nearly closed, and (b) baby isn't facing the camera. Try the crop again, on a shot with the above criteria

Great B+W conversion Try for dribble-free shots Someone on hand to wipe is helpful.

[Wannabe]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions/comments!! Much appreciated!

Charlotte.. I actually didn't crop it like this.. But it's how I took the pic.. i'll crop lower and repost! Thanks for telling me why/how to crop though! I'm still new to all of this so picking up tips here and there.. so this is very helpful!

[Charlotte]

Wannabe, the term "crop" can mean in-camera as well as cropping in post-production It mainly refers to what's excluded from the frame ("cropped out"), which in this case is the top of baby's head. Since you framed it like this when you took the shot, what's included and what's excluded is still referred to as "the crop". I'm trying to explain this clearly without repeating myself

[Wannabe]

Originally Posted by Charlotte

Wannabe, the term "crop" can mean in-camera as well as cropping in post-production It mainly refers to what's excluded from the frame ("cropped out"), which in this case is the top of baby's head. Since you framed it like this when you took the shot, what's included and what's excluded is still referred to as "the crop". I'm trying to explain this clearly without repeating myself

LOL!!! Ok.. got it now! So I should have been more careful framing her to begin with.. Understand now.. thank-you!

[Wannabe]

I cropped it a bit and fixed the scratch on her nose... for this shot is it better??

[Boofers]

I would think so, the poor picture keeps getting smaller,. you picked a good one to work on. I am thinking now that it would be fine as just a face portrait as there is nothing left to exclude except maybe the right hand side. I don't do a lot of face crops, but for this one it is all about the face,,,interesting topic Wannabe. I know when I shoot these pictures I always moveback far enough to pan my crop in the camera with enough area around the child, then I might go low for a face shot up from the floor hoping the child will look around with curiosity.

[Wannabe]

Boofers.. LOL! Yup.. not much more to crop out huh?

Thanks for everyones input! Much appreciated!! I'll take these suggestions and put them in practice now!