Need cropping/composition suggestions, please.

I took a few shots of my little girl a few days ago and I love how the shots came out (for the most part) but most of them are not in portrait type compostion. Dead center, in fact...sigh. Can anyone offer me any suggestions on how to make this better?

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Hi, ADORABLE little girl. Did you try to crop it some on both sides. Just to take off some of the dead space? Also I'm not a pro on this matter. But I'm sure someone will think of something more interesting do do with it. IMO it's a cute picture of your daughter.
Best Regards.
Jenny

She is absolutely precious (as mine is as well just 20 years older). There are lots of ways think about your image -- I like to fill the frame and I cropped your image pretty heavily (so the resolution is low) and tilted the crop so her face is a slight angle in the frame. What do you think? Dennis

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Is this your daughter? Im not so sure.
Eveyone is correct, of course, she is pretty much the definition of adorable.

Suggestions ...
Your camera angle is artisic choice, but Im not so sure it was your choice verses your position. The photo is take from a positon of power, and as such, de-emphasizes her innocence. With the camera looking at her from eye level, puts us at her level and she will win every time, what heart would not melt?

You are taking a vertical subject on a horizontal plane.
You have a light line vertically going through the background and her head.
Highlights at bottom of eyes with hot pink in lower right.

Still ... just how cute is this?

The first basic question to ask yourself everytime you take a photo of a person is this ... WHERE. Where is the best light and the best backgroung? With that as good as it gets, half the battle is over.

I could say more but would want more info of why you were taking photos of her.

Generally with portraits, verticle compositions are better for head and shoulder or 1/2 body composition. Also instead of shooting straight down from your view, get lower to eye level. The DOF looks good and there is a good catchlight as well.

Instead of editing, I'd rather shoot again, this time verticle and from lower perspective..

It's so hard to read tone in replies sometime, isn't it? Yes this is my daughter, as I stated in the OP and I was taking pictures of her because she's cute and I want to remember that when she's being a little turkey sometimes.

She's only three so she's still pretty little, and I took the picture with my 50mm and was actually standing on a chair because I wanted the background to be the brown wood of the floor rather than the busy background of the house, know what I mean? Also I do get down to her level quite a bit but this is the view that I usually have of her and for me, as her mama, it's a relative composition that will evoke an emotitive reaction in me later when she's towering above me (she's going to be tall like her Papa I imagine). I'm really not sure how the pose de-emphasizes her innocence....

Dchemist~ I really like your crop and the angle! I think I'll take the suggestion about reshooting and see if I can get more portrait type shots.

Thank you for the cc, everyone.

The first thing I saw was that her shoulders are square to the camera. Very few portrait photographers shoot straight into the chest. Turning her 45 degrees away from the camera position would help immensely. Also tipping her head helps.

Benji

Since you are the mom ... photograph to your satisfacton, nothing else really matters.
Sorry I missed that fact.

Cute girl and nice capture. Here is my take.

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I like it, thanks!

Cute girl, here's my version.

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