Critique pls

I don't care to shoot a hundred images hoping to get a good one. I'm also most interested in capturing images spontaneously rather then a controlled studio. Was taking a course to help me better understand composition and lighting. But the teacher was always comparing my images to stuff he shot for mags 15 years ago. That and he was anti-flash for some odd reason totally clueless how to even operate a flash gun. Being treated like a second rate noob was very discouraging for someone trying to learn.

Anything you would have done differently with these and why?

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First one looks like a BRIGHT on-camera flash producing hot spots and a harsh shadow under the chin. Soft lighting such as bouncing the flash would have helped a lot here.

The second one of the cat looks pretty good (the best of the 4 IMO), but the line of the wall on the left, and the floor on the right are somewhat distracting - could probably be removed in PP.

The baseball one looks very dark - difficult to see the eyes of the boy (I know this is difficult to overcome at a night game as the overhead lights cause that shadow). I think the vignette makes it worse. Focus appears to be off - or it could be SLIGHT motion blur depending on the shutter speed that was used.

The last one of the dog looks like a bare flash again - very bright, possibly some overexposure on the dogs head. It looks like a white rectangle was overlaid onto the top 1/3 of the image - possibly cutting off part of the right ear and tail.

#1: Harsh light; devil eyes; strange framing; distracting background. Composition Articles library
#2: Crop off the top. Clone whatever that is at the top-left.
#3: Way too contrasty; blown face & pants; Black-hole eyes.
#4: No eyes; cut off ears & tail. Get down on his level, & what's all that white at the top for?

Girl was taken with the direct popup flash which was all i had that day so might do more work on it later.
Cat could clone the wall but i only did minor raw correction out of laziness.
Baseball was shot through fence hand held with my 70-200 F4 (non is) which was challenging.
Dog is could be edited differently and should have been framed differently but it is what it is bad.

out of camera

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PhotosGuy wrote in post #13665934
what's all that white at the top for?

Blank canvas area from the lazy way i laid the images out in PS.

isoMorphic wrote in post #13665951
Girl was taken with the direct popup flash which was all i had that day so might do more work on it later.
Cat could clone the wall but i only did minor raw correction out of laziness.
Baseball was shot through fence hand held with my 70-200 F4 (non is) which was challenging.
Dog is could be edited differently and should have been framed differently but it is what it is bad.

out of camera

I know i've got a ways to go with using flash and my editing is probably a bit overkill
but i'll bring it down a bit.

Looks as if you didn't need us after all?