New to Portaits- One of my First. -Lollypop-

[jtice]

I have never really done any portrait shots, always wanted to try some though.
Little sister had a birthday party the other day, so I snapped off a few photos of them while playing in the yard.
This was one of my better ones. Let me know what you think.
I had to lower the lights and highlights in Lightroom so that her top wasn't blown out, also added just a bit of saturation.

I have a hard time deciding how the exposure should look.
I run 4 monitors, and they all look a bit different.
My Dell 24" widescreen looks the best, it is very bright and vivid,
but I feel that may be messing me up when it comes to making the photos look good for everyone.
I should buy one of those spider monitor calibrators.
Those of you that dont have one, how do you deal with this issue?

~John

 

[oldnavy170]

Well I don't like telling people the bad stuff but I have to tell you that I noticed right away that it looks like she ate a mouth full of hair. I know its just that her mouth is open and its her hair hanging there but thats all I can see. Sorry.

 

[zendianah]

Let me start with the positive.. the skin tone is great, the color is great.

I don't think I like the fact that she is looking at the lollipop and laughing. I don't know why I don't like it. The blue sprinkles in her hair bother me and like oldnavy says it looks like shes eating her hair.

I'm sorry.. Its just my opinion..

 

[jtice]

Yea, I noticed the hair also, I was going to edit it out, but didnt really want to alter the image that much.
I guess that would be better though.

Most of the shots I didnt like at all, were due to the persons position, something in the background or close to them that made a nice crop all but impossible.
Though, it was fun trying to get some shots candidly like that.

Oh BTW, the blue sprinkles were from confetti eggs they made, and threw.

~John