First decent photo of baby

Hi everyone, I'm kinda new to photography and POTN. I've had a SLR but have been basically using as a PNS. I've recently upgraded to a T3i and started doing some more reading and trying to learn how to take better photos so I can fill my walls with nice photos like I see here in these forums.
Here's a recent shot I took of my 3 month old daughter. I just happened to snap a few shots after I gave her a bath. It wasn't planned which explains the ratty towel. I actually had to touch up a part of the photo towel because a distracting thread was hanging out. Aside from that, no editing or cropping was done.
Taken with my Canon 50mm f/1.4 and 580EX II flash.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks!

beautiful baby! congrats, the picture composition is nice, however you missed focus on her right eye and as you might already know her eyes are the focal point in this image, I think once you sharpen the image will take care of that issue, great start.

Thank you, I have Adobe Photoshop Elements, I should be able to use this to sharpen the photo up? I haven't done much photo editing in the past besides cropping and resizing for ebay items!

As Alquimista said, you really have to get the eyes crisp on a shot that is composed that tightly around the face. But, the lighting and composition are really nice, and the "What's mommy doing to me now?" expression is priceless.

Here's a before and after edit. I'm not a post processing whiz by any means, so someone else might be able to have a go at it. This was Aperture 3. I added a bit of sharpening and toned down the orangey cast a bit, just for the fun of it. Seriously, this is one of the prettiest babies I've seen on this forum for a long time. You will have SO much fun photographing her, Gizmo!

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Sue, nicely done with that WB!
I agree, just adorable babe, congratulations.
Take your time when photographing her in the future, she is a captive model

Wow, that looks great Sue, thanks! And thanks for all the kind words, I'll definately try to take some nice photos of her, they change and grow up so fast!
This is defeinately a fun and rewarding hobby, each time I visit this website I get lost in all the valuable information here and forget what I came to research! Hopefully in time I can contribute and help others.

gizmo17 wrote in post #12830188
Hi everyone, I'm kinda new to photography and POTN. I've had a SLR but have been basically using as a PNS. I've recently upgraded to a T3i and started doing some more reading and trying to learn how to take better photos so I can fill my walls with nice photos like I see here in these forums.
Here's a recent shot I took of my 3 month old daughter. I just happened to snap a few shots after I gave her a bath. It wasn't planned which explains the ratty towel. I actually had to touch up a part of the photo towel because a distracting thread was hanging out. Aside from that, no editing or cropping was done.
Taken with my Canon 50mm f/1.4 and 580EX II flash.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks!

hi gizmo17, that's one cute little thing you got there.

I suggest that you take your baby's photo every day. that way, you will not only preserve the precious memories of your newborn, but this will also help you improve a lot in your photography. and of course reading through a lot of the threads here in POTN.

that's what I did to my baby who's almost 9 months old now. i've been taking about 5 to 10 photos of him every time I got home from work. even when we take him to the mall, park, children's parties etc., I always make it a point to get his picture.

Thanks Ianxxxchua. Funny you say that, this is my 3rd (and last), the first one probably has thousands of pictures of him, most are probably snapshots, nothing really nice like the ones I find in these forums, the 2nd child probably has only a few hundred! I'll have to step it up a bit and take more (nice) photos of all 3. At my level, I'm happy if I get 1 good photo from taking 20, hopefully that'll go down with practice and reading. I definately think I learn better by practicing, I'm reading the "Understanding Exposure" book, I find myself falling asleep at times.

gizmo, give this website a whirl: http://www.shortcourse​s.com I have my two granddaughters reading it. They are both into photography (they are 13 and 14) and they have learned a ton from it, in terms that are much easier to understand than most websites. Many photographers are visual learners, which is why they like photography, it is a visual medium. It is easy for us visual learners to be bored reading technical stuff....give it a try, it covers every aspect of photography.

Beautiful child and I love the composition. Nicely done. Sharpen the focus and you are set.

Cute baby. I think the white balance needs a bit of correction as well as sharpening.

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Thanks, I'll try playing around with the photo when I get home to see if I can get the same results posted here.