Portrait of my daughter - C&C please

I posted this same picture on the Kids & Family forum asking for C&C and got some great feedback. Didn't even realize this forum existed so I'm posting it here too in case there's additional feedback to be had.

Since my daughter hit about a year to a year and a half of age, I decided to take photography a little more seriously and do more than just point and shoot. In the past 1-1.5 years (my daughter is 2.5) I've come a LONG way but I recognize that I'm NOWHERE near where I want to be. That said, occasionally I manage to create something I enjoy.

My 7.5 month pregnant wife promised to humor me and allow me to take some pictures last night, but then wasn't feeling up to it when the time came. So, I snagged Kyla (our daughter) and took her to the field behind our house and took a few pictures. This is one that I really liked. Shot into the sun with the 6D + 135L @ f/2. This lens is one of my favorites as it's insanely sharp, renders beautifully, and the flare is AWESOME when you want it!

Of course, everyone on FB loved it - but I have literally posted pictures of her sleeping before taken with a cell phone that were just plain ugly and they all love those shots too - lol. There, it's about the subject matter, not about beautiful shots. So, I wanted to post here and get some feedback, if you don't mind. How can I improve with shots like this?

I also did a local edit by selecting only my daughter, increasing exposure another 1/3 of a stop, decreasing the temperature a tad, and increasing contrast and clarity. Globally, I very slightly increased the exposure and adjusted the tone curve (VERY minimal tone curve adjustment - as you can see in the screen shot), changed the color temperature and added a slight amount of red tint and that was it. Again, this "look" was created mostly by the lens and shooting into the light.

On the other thread, someone suggested black and white and I actually think I prefer it over the color version.

As for my "model"... she doesn't accept direction nor care what I think - lol. I managed to get her to stand where she was and "smell" the flower and about 8 seconds later after her goofing around and approximately half a second before she was done with my shenanigans, this moment presented itself. Slight crop for composition.

Thanks for any feedback!

I really like the B&W version, nice job! Only suggestion I really have is that I might try and dodge (brighten) her face a little, specifically her eyes.

Beautiful little girl and photo!

Thanks for sharing.

I want this little girl!

I love the B&W! Agree on brighting her eyes.

If this were my image to process, I would do a few things. I agree with the others that the B/W is the one to work with. The color is kind of a dreamy feel to it, which is not bad, but the B/W is better for what I would do.
Here are the edits I would do. On the left hand side the hair (because of the back lighting) is blown out. I would use a local brush and darken it a touch until it was not so bright. It will draw the attention back to your daughter face. I would also use a local adjustment brush and add some additional exposure to her face and in particular the eyes as noted by others. And with any B/W image, I play around with clarity/contrast to see what I like. Maybe even pull the shadows a little bit before messing with the exposure on the face. It might give you some brightness that is missing on her face.
And finally, I would actually use clone or heal and make the hairs going off the frame stop short of the edge of the frame. You could heal/clone to just make it appear the hairs were just about to go out of frame. That way it does not look like you missed the hairs in frame.
But I would put that image on my wall if that was my daughter. No question, you captured the perfect moment.

Thank y'all for the suggestions. Here's what I came up with...

I'm not on my "good" monitor, but these look great to me. I think you did a perfect job brightening her face/eyes. B&W still has my vote

Good job!

freestylee30 wrote in post #17491319
I'm not on my "good" monitor, but these look great to me. I think you did a perfect job brightening her face/eyes. B&W still has my vote

Good job!

Agree

Absolutely beautiful! I'd have the B&W on my wall in a heartbeat if this was my daughter!

Definitely like what you did on the rework. I think you got the eyes just the way they should look. It does not look overly bright in either of her eyes and they do look a LOT better lightened up.
Now that I see the hairs ending before the frame, I definitely like that look better than they extending outside the frame. I would definitely consider either of them keepers, but I still prefer the B/W conversion best.