C&C sharpness and lighting please

[Alorien]

I'm really trying to work on learning my camera and my weakest points in a lot of my pics has been the lighting (mastering my speedlight) and sharpness of my photos.

Not the best place for me to be doing photos since the living room is cluttered but this is mainly practice :)


http://alorien.smugmug.com/photos/436775527_TMi9g-X2-1.jpg

[SwingBopper]

Have you tried sharpening in post processing? You'll get sharper images shooting in the middle range of your f-stops say around f8 or f11; but of course the background will be more in focus too. Tradeoffs.

[rushnp774]

I absolutely love the expression on his face. Great capture. If I were processing the pic, I'd crop quite a bit tighter around his face to cut out some of the distraction of the living room, and bump the colors up a bit to make it "pop." Other than that, I like it!