How does this look?

Hi, I shot this one when my niece came over to visit. Does this look okay? C&C welcome!
I am learning and new to portrait photography. So I would really like to know what you think.
I posted this in the "People"section and got no response and so I am posting it here.

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expression is great! I usually like the eyes focused directly at camera but this is nice too!

It looks a little dark on my monitor, but her happy expression definitely makes for a good snapshot.

MariaG wrote in post #6081703
expression is great! I usually like the eyes focused directly at camera but this is nice too!

When I make her look at me, she becomes conscious and makes this funny face that didn't look good.

Vetteography wrote in post #6081720
It looks a little dark on my monitor, but her happy expression definitely makes for a good snapshot.

Yeah you're right! I am looking at it from work and it does look dark but my home laptop (that I got 6 years ago:rolleyes shows fine.

Thanks again for the comments.

A little more light and preferably looking more at the camera.
Try to maintain detail in her hair.

Kids are tough, you sometimes have to trick them a bit, taking a shot when they don't expect it. I take my eye away from the viewfinder all the time when shooting kids, I talk to them getting there attention and snap a few, works great for me.

I would like to suggest you use flash, 430ex or better and bounce it off the (white) ceiling. Also, don't use monitors to judge brightness - use the histogram first. On this shot, I saw a lot of empty space on the right side. You don't have image editing turned on, or I'd modify it to show you what I mean.

Hi, sorry for the late reply.
I just made "edit OK".
Thank you for your comments!

No problem. Here's my idea of how it would look better.

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Nice edit, Dave..

Yes, It is beautiful! I am learning from your comments. Now off to buy a flash

Thank you for your tips!

I cropped Dave's version...

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Looks like you enlarged it as well? I'm not sure that's the best way to go for sharpness.