First photo post, my little day dreamer

Hello all. I am fairly new to the forum~ (I have been lurking for a few months and have learned so much from the sidelines). I recently purchased my first DSLR and am in love. I took this shot earlier today of my little guy using light from the window. I really could use feedback. I feel like it lacks something....Is it underexposed maybe? Many thanks.

I like the shot, and prefer the b&w version. Take lots of photos, play with different poses, compositions, and lighting conditions. You'll develop a sense of what appeals to you. As you've discovered, potn is a tremendous resource for learning photography where we can all learn from each other. Thanks for your post!

I like this shot. It seems as though your focus point fell on the head of your subject instead of between the eyes? Your lighting looks ok, but seems to drop off hard on the right side of image (left side of subjects hair)
I tweeked it a little in photoshop.
Curves adjustment
Levels adjustment
played with the eyes with USM
ran it through noiseware.

A really quick play, but you can see a difference.

Thank you so much for your feedback . Wow, I really love your edits, they look so much better. I played around with them in Raw but just could not get it to look as nice. I will go back and try adjusting a bit more to see if I can come up with something similar results. I need the practice. I believe you are right in that that the focus does appear stronger on his hair. I don't yet have an external flash so there was not a fill flash, it sounds like I could have benefited by a little fill flash maybe?

I used a 50m 1.8 lens with the camera set to AV mode ~the aperture value was at 1.8. The ISO was set to 200 and the shutter speed was at 1/125.

Many thanks again for your time!

You dont necessarily need a flash. You could use a reflector on the dark side of the subject or a white board or something. that will help even out the shadow. Much cheaper fix then buying a flash
If you set your ap at maybe F4 ISO at 400 and shutter at around 1/250 it may give you a better result. With your ap wide open like that you really have to shoot just between the eyes to get the face in focus.
HTH some. I am sure others will jump in as well and give a more technical advanced answer (I am still a newbie as well) that will help you a little more

Thanks for the advice. I will try bumping up the settings a bit and see if that helps for future shots.