My brown eyed girl :)

I would love some opinions & CC on these. They are SOOC except I bumped the contrast ever so slightly, and got rid of a tiny scratch above her eye, and some drool in the 2nd one. I feel like the focus is better in the 2nd one, but the 1st comes off as a much stronger image. I can't figure out if it's the eye contact, crop, background, a combination of these things, or something else. Thoughts?

1.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8507/8...dc0dfeaf7e.jpg
DSC_0033 by TinaBshootin, on Flickr

2.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8091/8...1207e3710f.jpg
DSC_0049 by TinaBshootin, on Flickr

Yes, the focus in the 2nd image is much much better. I'm pretty sure that the eye contact is what is making the first image stronger for you, but for me the focus issue kills it and because of that I much prefer the 2nd image.

I think your focus problems are probably due to the very slow shutter speed used. 1/60 is far too slow when shooting children so you got motion blur. Keep that shutter speed at least 1/125 when shooting people.

Amber has some great CC for you there. I completely agree with raising your shutter speed. When you look at the large versions, even the second one is blurry, and I can't seem to find a spot where focus was locked. Probably camera shake since the SS is so slow. I have a really hard time with any SS lower than 1/250, personally. I guess I just can't hold my camera still enough. Your exposure looks good, so I would bump up your ISO so you can raise your SS.

As far as comp goes, I would try to step back some more. I was stuck in a rut where all my photos were closeups. I really had to make myself take a step back, and get more of the body in the frame so I could at least follow the rule of thirds.

I think you have some great advice on improving your shots one method I use to try and steady the camera is take a deep breath in then on the breath out line up your shot and take the picture. I surprised myself and got one picture at 1/25 that it was clear by doing this, mind you my subject was stationary. I find using 1/200 or higher is best when taking pictures of kids.

Thanks so much for all the help! This was not a planned shoot. Ivy was laying on the floor playing, and I liked the way the light was in her eyes, so I grabbed my camera, got on the floor and shot a few (or 30, lol) I do have some full body shots. They were tricky to get though. Because of where she was, I had to back myself up in a corner to get her whole body in with my 50mm.

...my dumb mistake is, I KNOW this about ss... it's just when I'm actually shooting, I'm deathly afraid of raising my ISO. Must be due to all the things I've read about noise. I need to get over that! I need to remember that an image with noise is not worse than an image out of focus.

Here is how I ended up cropping the one, to try to get away from the centered comp. It's so strange to me to not have much to do pp. I'm used to having to "fix" something. Proper exposure really fixes a ton of potential problems! Is the color ok? Crop better?
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8509/8...8185a3226b.jpg
DSC_0049edit by TinaBshootin, on Flickr

Thing is, if you raise your ISO, yet still have good exposure, you're not going to get much noise. And it shouldn't be anything that noisewaire can't help.

This one was shot at 1600 ISO with a Rebel, which is known for terrible noise past ISO 400. This is the version with no noise reduction.

1/100 (w/tripod) f/3.2 ISO 1600 50mm
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8...7c56264c_z.jpg
IMG_0272-3 by Stephanie.Miller, on Flickr

Link for larger view: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8...b28c9045_h.jpg You can see some noise at the larger size. Mostly in the shadows. Noiseware Community Edition takes care of it pretty well.

Don't be afraid of high ISO. Be afraid of slow shutter speeds and underexposed photos ;)

Wow. Thank you thank you for the example! I was going to google some images to try to move beyond this fear. This is awesome.

Here's how I always feel about noise- it doesn't RUIN the photo if you love it. You will love it with or without noise! :) With that cute face, I would take noise! :)