Need newbie help

Hopefully I will post this correctly as I am learning EVERYTHING at one time here.

I "attempted" to get my four year old and two year old to be my models while trying to learn lighting set ups. As you can see, I got a GREAT moment of time captured here in an image that needs a ton of technical help because my set up was off.

I fell in love with the picture, but need help to fix it. Can anyone help me with some tips as to how to make this picture good enough for printing.

I hope I resized the picture correctly for the forum, the photo software is blowing my mind. I am just so lost with it.

Thanks in Advance for any help.

Billie

Camera: 20D
Lighting: Aliens Bees 800 (2) One used overhead and one with an umbrella.
PS CS2

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I love the picture, but I don't see a lot of depth there. I can't get EXIF settings, how did you shoot it? Lens, ISO, RAW? I'm wondering if softening of the light would have helped as well. There are a lot of shadows, even in the face. Keep working at it. Love those moments that they are cooperating or are as cute, it makes you say ahhhh.

Suzie,

I shot with a 20D camera - Tamron 28-75mm lens
ISO 100
JPEG

I was adjusting lighting and the kids decided to start doing all these cute things, so I ran to the camera, started shooting, hopin for hte best. I just fell in love with this one so much, I couldn't trash it.
In this picture, I played with Photoshop a little to try to fix it myself.

A wonderful photo. Actually- I think not knowing your software perfectly may be an advantage- it forces you to get things right in camera and will save you a lot of time in the long run. There's nothing better than pulling up an image and realizing there's nothing you can do to make it better! (okay, there's always something, but you know what I mean).

I think sometimes you have to capture the moment no matter what and you did just that. This is a moment you will cherish for a lifetime. The most important thing is that you love it.

Art

Very cute shot. Here my take.. just a bit of cloning and dodging.

However the crop isnt a good choice.. you wont be able to get it printed like that!

The second is an example for selective color on it which I think would work great.. I just didnt do a clean job on it.. just quick to show what it would look like

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Definatley like the selective color. I have it saved in it's original state, and I also still have the image on my Memory Card. I definatley want to get this one printed, even if it is small to hide some of the flaws.

Thanks everyone.

LIghtning wise, i think its pretty spot on. I dont mind shadows as it makes the picture more 3 dimesional. Just make sure the shadows are not too harsh, which I think you got covered. Perhaps trying ot make the upper half of the set completely white? that may give a more pro look to the image i think.

Keep up the good work.

Henry