Playing with portraits... c&c please :)

This is my 6 year old niece, Jade. I have been trying to improve my portraiture skills and since I have such pretty daughters/sisters/niec​es I have been using them as models.

This is a genuine smile! My sister was dancing behind me making her laugh.

Please, tell me what you think!

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For portrait work, your background is waay too busy and you're dealing with harsh sunlight, witness the overexposed areas on head and shirt.

chauncey wrote in post #14748582
For portrait work, your background is waay too busy and you're dealing with harsh sunlight, witness the overexposed areas on head and shirt.

Yeah, I agree on the background. I had wanted to use their house's exterior walls as a background (formerly a very pretty yellow) but they are in the process of re-siding it and black tar paper wouldn't have been very appealing, either lol

Use fill flash so it doesn't look so flat. Like a shoot through umbrella or something :P

JuliaPauline08 wrote in post #14749582
Yeah, I agree on the background. I had wanted to use their house's exterior walls as a background (formerly a very pretty yellow) but they are in the process of re-siding it and black tar paper wouldn't have been very appealing, either lol

Agree with Chauncey -

Hate to say it but the tar paper might have made a better background.

Titus213 wrote in post #14752902
Agree with Chauncey -

Hate to say it but the tar paper might have made a better background.

Possibly the fence? It's a wooden privacy fence... I just hate black backgrounds.

I don't find the background to be that bad, just the white poles maybe a little distracting. So how about cloning them out, filling the ground with grass, darkening the background and lightening the girl?

It is just not how busy the background is, it is the bright saturated yellow-green colour that pull your eye away. Qbx edit is much better but could be improved by toning down that unnatural green (very common BTW in digital full sun shots)
Qbx...are you up for it?
Another solution many do is to convert the pic to B&W but usually it is better with better lighting - this one is a bit flat on the face.

Qbx wrote in post #14755691
I don't find the background to be that bad, just the white poles maybe a little distracting. So how about cloning them out, filling the ground with grass, darkening the background and lightening the girl?

I like that way better. I hated the bean poles (what the white thing was in the original background) when I took the picture. I have others from the same day, but I liked her toothless smile in this so was hoping I could make it work. I can always go back and do it again

A lot of my equipment was stolen when my car was broken in to in Seattle. Like an idiot I left my camera bag with 3 other lenses and my flash in the car over night. So I kinda have to work with what I've got at the moment, which is just the kit 18-55mm lens, the sun, and my T3i, until I can save up the cash to replace my stuff!

Spike44 wrote in post #14756018
It is just not how busy the background is, it is the bright saturated yellow-green colour that pull your eye away. Qbx edit is much better but could be improved by toning down that unnatural green (very common BTW in digital full sun shots)
Qbx...are you up for it? ...

I see what you mean about the bright yellow-green. So I darkened & de-saturated the yellows and greens a bit while holding back the subject.

I went even further just to show how much yellow is in the photo....even reflecting on to her face esp. her neck. The "after" is exaggerated for effect:

I'm gonna try the black and white route. Will repost when it's done.