New Guy - Harsh Critique Welcomed

Nikon D3100 with the 55-200 lens.

Pretty child. She should be the sole focus of this shot and should dominate the frame. The background here is superfluous.

Agreed with Ron.
Since you have image editing enabled, I hope you don't mind me giving an example of the composition that I would prefer.

I also did a quick touchup in Lightroom, but the pic is so small there is not much you can do with it.

Yes, this is the way I was leaning, Blacktop. For what ever reason I do not get the exif files on a lot of photos so I do not know the f stop that this was shot at. A wide open stop might have blurred out more of the background.

Welcome....Composition,WB,And Dof is off. I edited it with a crop, change of WB, bumped the contrast,pulled down hightlights and exposure 2/3 of a stop...The pic in general is overexposed.. Practice practice and more practice...

Beautiful little girl and a good photo but I feel the rail car on the left of the picture is really distracting and on my monitor it looked a touch over exposed. Here's my edit, whilst I agree with Ron and Blacktop I feel a bit more of the background can be left in but a lower aperture setting would have blurred the background more making her the sole subject of the photo.

I might have gone a bit overboard with the contrast slider before.
Pulled highlights, pulled shadow, pulled exposure, bumped clarity, pulled vibrance. added some noise reduction

That D3100 and the 55-200 is not a bad combo. With some practice and understanding the exposure triangle, you'll be taking fantastic shots of your little girl in no time.

Ok, you said harsh critique. I don't like the photo. The problem is NOT with the subject - the little girl. It's where she is at. In the original picture you have the box car (or whatever that is) sticking in in the upper left. I would have cropped down just like Shoot Raw, and there are some editing issues that come with experience. But that's not why I don't like the image. The picture begs the question of WHY? Why is there this l lost little girl standing in a rail yard? Recomposing the shot with her maybe trying to balance and walk down the train track rail would give me some rhyme or reason as to why she is there. A cute little girl balancing down the rail is an image we can understand. To boil it down, I just don't understand the setting.

A picture often tells a story, for me the story in this picture is "I'm Lost!"

The little girl is at a perfect age where children are just oozing with cuteness. Go back out and try again, but when you shoot think about the "story" behind the shot.

Anyway, that's my two cents devalued to a single cent.

Welcome to the forum.

Great input! Thank you all so much for taking the time. Like a palm to the forehead with the rail-car, I was thinking "Gives the Right side of the frame some texture but yeah, now I see it's totally distracting. Between the adjustments I'm getting a lot of "too dark" so maybe my monitor is crap and I'm over-compensating in photoshop? I know what you mean about telling a story, and I did have some shots along those lines from this day but they were dung. I will probably fall short of actual "Artistry" in this regard at least for the time being. I have an opportunity coming up to shoot an actual adult in Ren Fest garb and maybe I'll find some story there.
,

Don't take the story thing too much to heart though. Yes it's nice to have a story behind it, but sometimes a picture of something, is just a picture of something.
Take a shot at a pretty flower, and it's just a pretty flower.. Put that same pretty flower on a guitar, and now you have a guitar with a flower on top. Looks good, and no story.

Blacktop said:

Take a shot at a pretty flower, and it's just a pretty flower.. Put that same pretty flower on a guitar, and now you have a guitar with a flower on top. Looks good, and no story.

Click to expand...

I will agree with Blacktop, but if you're going to show us more than subject, consider the story in the rest of what you're showing us. But very true, don't get too hung up on a story. If it's there then it's there.

Moab Man said:

I will agree with Blacktop, but if you're going to show us more than subject, consider the story in the rest of what you're showing us. But very true, don't get too hung up on a story. If it's there then it's there.

Click to expand...

I didn't mean to downplay what you were trying to say earlier. Your advice is always appreciated .

Blacktop said:

I didn't mean to downplay what you were trying to say earlier. Your advice is always appreciated .

Click to expand...

@Blacktop

No worries. I agreed with what you were saying. Sometimes, when we're talking to someone asking for advice, we don't always point out that that every suggestion has a certain application and other times it should be ignored. You were correct in your suggestion. I did not cover that sometimes a flower is merely a flower.

We're all good here.

I think the most interesting photos all have a back story. It is our ability to imply that story that sets off our best photos. A flower is just a flower except where there is an implied story we can convey to the viewer. My best flowers all have a story that affects me personally and that is why I give names to them that suggests the story. The rest are just flowers and and do not appeal to me no matter how technically correct they may be.