Honest feedback please

[Wfpinky]

Backstory: I stumbled across this picture of my nephew while cleaning up my workflow in Lightroom. I took it about two months ago during a "break" from the shoot his parents asked me to do. I had just gotten my flash (which by the way, I still don't really know how to use) and was playing around with it when I got this shot, hoping it would "click" and make more sense to me. Well, it didn't "click", but I did get this shot in the process. He was 6 months old at the time and sitting on the couch babbling up a storm.

For whatever reason I seem to really like this photo. Maybe it's because of the lighting, or maybe I'm just being a bias aunt who thinks her nephew is adorable (maybe both?). But a lot of people who've seen it keep saying it's a really good shot and many have said I need to start a facebook page for my photography (which I refuse to do until I'm better. Simply owning a nikon doesn't make me a "real photographer"). So I want opinions from people who have a photographer's eye.

Let the feedback begin

 

[sashbar]

I must have some great family value, because you have captured a cute expression, but other than that I can not see anything special, no te honest with you. Just bear in mind that other photographer will not nessessaraly share your sentimental feelings and the image may look boring and dull to him.
It is dull in terms of white balance (a bit off), low contrast, and dull colors. This is because it was simply not exposed properly as you say it yourself, and it shows.
Just one click in Photoshop improves it in some ways, and cropping a bit on the right helps with composition. Some unsharp mask adds a bit of sparkle in his eyes.
But it needs further work, of course - to get rid of red spots etc. DoF is not for everybody's liking, although it ids a matter of taste in my view.
But all in all I woild take facebook praise with a huge bucket of salt, if you you wish to take it seriously and improve.
That's my 2 p. And I am not into portraits. Some pros in this field may give you better advice.

 

[Designer]

For whatever reason I seem to really like this photo.

It's not bad. Not "professional grade", but not bad, either. WB is off, not framed ideally, and could use some sharpening, but that is about all I would do with this one.

 

[Granddad]

Do some Google surfing for pro baby photographers, look at their portfolios. Note the photo backgrounds they use and the clarity of the shot.
You said in your other post that the parents insisted on the photos being taken in the nursery - look at the results you got compared to the shots the pros get. Next time someone "insists" on telling you how to take your shots hand them the camera and tell them to take their own shots since they know how to do it better than you do... unless they're paying big money AND you don't care about your reputation as a photographer.

Do some Youtube surfing on using flash, diffusers, reflectors etc.

You could put a blurred photo of a dead maggot on Facebook and people would rave about it. Never take FB praise seriously (or, for that matter, the praise of friends and relatives).

If you like shooting children try photographing a child who you don't have an emotional attachment to, you'll find it easier to judge the quality of the shot dispassionately.

Take everything I've said with a pinch of salt because I'm rubbish at shooting babies and children, I haven't even managed any respectable shots of my own grandchildren!

 

[KmH]

IMO the light quality was pretty poor, and the flash did not add sufficient exposure to the childs facial mask

I did a number of quick and dirty edits, starting with ACR (Camera Raw/LR Develop module)
ACR: Adjusted the white balance, capture sharpened (slight global sharpening), added a bit of Vibrance.
Photoshop CC: I cropped the photo.
Using the Polygonal Lasso tool I selected just the under exposed portion of the facial mask and used the Refine Edge option to feather the edge of the selection.
With the selection active I made an Exposure adjustment layer and added exposure inside the selection.
With the same selection active I made a Color Balance adjustment layer and adjusted the facial mask skin color.
I again used the Polygonal Lasso tool to select the child's sclera (eye whites). With that selection active I then used a Vibrance adjustment layer and completely de-saturated the sclera.
I used the Sharpening tool and selectively sharpened the areas around the child's eyes, nostrils, lips, chin, and shirt under the chin.
I cloned out some distracting secondary and tertiary background elements.
Lastly I added a narrow black border.

 

[Granddad]

IMO the light quality was pretty poor, and the flash did not add sufficient exposure to the childs facial mask

I did a number of quick and dirty edits, starting with ACR (Camera Raw/LR Develop module)
ACR: Adjusted the white balance, capture sharpened (slight global sharpening), added a bit of Vibrance.
Photoshop CC: I cropped the photo.
Using the Polygonal Lasso tool I selected just the under exposed portion of the facial mask and used the Refine Edge option to feather the edge of the selection.
With the selection active I made an Exposure adjustment layer and added exposure inside the selection.
With the same selection active I made a Color Balance adjustment layer and adjusted the facial mask skin color.
I again used the Polygonal Lasso tool to select the child's sclera (eye whites). With that selection active I then used a Vibrance adjustment layer and completely de-saturated the sclera.
I used the Sharpening tool and selectively sharpened the areas around the child's eyes, nostrils, lips, chin, and shirt under the chin.
I cloned out some distracting secondary and tertiary background elements.
Lastly I added a narrow black border.

Nicely done KmH. That's quite a lot of work. Now I'm not distracted by so many other distractions what jumps out at me is the orange trousers taking up the foreground. The fact that he's pulling on his sock (SO typical!!) is cute but the knee now seems to dominate ... or am I being too picky? I can't see a good way to crop this.

OP, you said this was taken a couple of months ago, any chance of a reshoot with what you know now?

 

[Didereaux]

Backstory: I stumbled across this picture of my nephew while cleaning up my workflow in Lightroom. I took it about two months ago during a "break" from the shoot his parents asked me to do. I had just gotten my flash (which by the way, I still don't really know how to use) and was playing around with it when I got this shot, hoping it would "click" and make more sense to me. Well, it didn't "click", but I did get this shot in the process. He was 6 months old at the time and sitting on the couch babbling up a storm.

For whatever reason I seem to really like this photo. Maybe it's because of the lighting, or maybe I'm just being a bias aunt who thinks her nephew is adorable (maybe both?). But a lot of people who've seen it keep saying it's a really good shot and many have said I need to start a facebook page for my photography (which I refuse to do until I'm better. Simply owning a nikon doesn't make me a "real photographer"). So I want opinions from people who have a photographer's eye.

Let the feedback begin

My money is on the biased Aunt explanation. Technically the snapshot is not very good. Yeah the kid is cute, but that doesn't make it a good shot. Hey, you wanted honest!