Photography What should I do to make this photo even better?

Your photo link doesn't seem to be working ^^;

 

I can't see your link, but my usual tips for photo-editing: even using a basic editor (like Windows Live Gallery) and raising brightness, contrast, fixing colour balance etc. is helpful in raising quality! Also, I personally love the old photo frame that photobucket.com provides. Easy one-click option to make your picture look vintage!

 

Over all I think the after shot's looking good. Editing wise it looks good, there is a bit of noise coming through from where you've brightened it but it's not enough to be distracting or detract from the over all look.
My biggest critique would be that the composition is very center heavy which typically doesn't really lend itself to being a very dynamic composition. if you try having her off to the side a bit, it can really help cut down on the amount of space that isn't really doing anything for the shot as a whole.
I hope you don't mind but I just did a quick crop to show what I mean:



A simple way of helping to liven up composition it to use the rule of thirds which basically just involves imagining the frame being split into thirds both horizontally and vertically and positioning what you want to be the focal point where the lines intersect. The below's a quick example of how it works on your shot:

Original:


cropped:


I hope that makes sense and is helpful ^^

 

Holy crap, that's actually really impressive if you where shooting at ISO3200 and that's the noise you got! XD I would expect a lot more from an ISO so high with most cameras.
Generally it's best to keep the ISO around 100, personally I aim for 800 at most in extreme situations if I can help it since that's the point noise typically starts to be a problem. If you're having to bump the ISO up so high it may be best to try to introduce more light instead since your image quality wont suffer that way.

 

I agree with River that it's not exceptionally dynamic or visually interesting, and I think the tips about the composition rules would really help in this case. I think it looks much better cropped, but is still a little too bland for my tastes. I think I feel this way because there is simultaneously too much and too little of the doll on show. You've captured an intriguing facial expression, but then this is dulled by the expanse of torso included in shot. I'd suggest either focusing entirely on her face and keeping all of the visual space dedicated to that, or include more of the body to reiterate the vulnerable expression she has, by placement of hands etc. On the other hand, I do like the soft, muted colours, but to pull that look off you need a lot of visual dynamism!

 

That's better, but it would be even more compelling if you cropped out the top of her head too, because otherwise her eyes are too low down, if you see what I mean. Personally I think her face is the most interesting part of the picture, and like you I also really like her collarbones, so I think to crop from the top and from the left would be the best thing to do now, though of course you would end up with a tiny picture! Rather like the one in your avatar, but with more expanse to the left, so it's like a landscape portrait with your doll on the right, if that makes sense.

 

I would crop it to where that diagonal dark line begins on the left hand side. Then I think it would be great!

 

I would love to edit this i'm a photographer and i might know some tricks that might make it look pretty nifty ;p if you don't mind i could have a try at it

 

Wow this looks a lot better! You have definitely found some really helpful advice. I'm not a photography/composition expert by any means but I think I might crop even a little more from the top to further raise the eyes. It's really come a long way.

 

Yaay... it's very useful XDD Thank you

 

Personally, I would brighten it even more, and make a focal blur around her to draw even more attention to her.

I do hope it's alright that I took a try and edited your photo - All rights to you, of course!



That's my personal preference :3
But it's a beautiful photo to start out with!!
Lovely doll as well!