Untitled

Beautiful child, great smile, great color impact, exposure good. The lighting is less than optimal, seeming to come only from the right, and leaving the left side of the facial area with less exposure, and a distracting shadow (of the red material) on the right side of the face. The generally red-hued skin color shifts to a bluish tint around the left eye, as well. The subject's general facial tones seem to me to be redder than normal. When correcting facial color in an image with a disproportionately strong surrounding color (red, in this case), it may be preferrable to isolate the facial area on your monitor when determining the best post-processing color adjustments. I used the white of the hat and the facial area to choose what I felt to be the best color tones. This eliminates the color bias from the predominately red outfit and provides a more "clean" choice for the "correct" facial color. Grated, this is largely subjective, and, having seen the subject, it gives you, the photographer, a decided advantage in the color selection process. But, another which is easier to see and correct are the sleeves which have a decidedly dingy, off-white coloring. When compared to the bright white of the hat, this becomes more noticeable and demanding of correction. Finally, the decorations on the garment are not sharp and lend specular highlights which look a great deal like sloppy processing. It isn't, but neither do these specular highlights contribute to the portrait. I would suggest editting them out, particularly where they are not recognizeable. These highlights I did not address in my example, however. See it as an attachment.