speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

I do not think it is overexposed, there are no blown out highlights, or that sort of thing. The only thing noticeable are hard shadows, which means harsh lighting, but overall it is rather pleasing (still needs some work). The skin tones are not too bad at all!

brokeweb Loc: Philadelphia

I think your image is good the way it is. Her eyes are sharp and out of shadow. I don't know how many times I see portraits like this and the eyes are in shadow. I think when you take pictures of babies the focus should be a little soft. I think your exposure is right too. The highlights are not blown out and you see detail in the shadows. And you really can't judge your exposure solely on a histogram. Most histograms will show to the left in high contrast images like this one. Why? I don't know. I think your image, technically, is very good.

canon Lee

HI I love your shot. Understand that everyone is looking at your image on their computer. (Make sure your monitor is calibrated). Your image will look different color wise, as well as contrast and white /black levels to others. Your shot can be adjusted using a good editing program like LightRoom. Shoot in RAW. LR has a great RAW converter built in. Using LR with RAW you can always go back at a later date and re-edit without loosing quality. It is a must to work with a calibrated monitor. As to the focus as has been pointed out. There is a slight softness on the right side of the child. This isn't always a bad thing. Children and women look best with soft skin. Point your focus on the eyes. The problem is that you are standing too close and it is a shallow depth of field. That means that very little is in sharp focus. The aperture opening is critical to depth of field, as is the distance and focal length of the lens. Getting too close and you distort the face. Try using a smaller aperture opening like F8+. Looks like there was plenty of sunlight, so an ISO of 100 would be better. With practice you will learn at what angle to face your subject so that you can control the shadows on the face. The more the sun is at right angles to your camera the harsher the shadows will be. Try a 45degree angle to the camera just so that the subject isn't squinting. Don't zoom in to close . You can always crop your image later, so take the shot with room around the subject. Don't zoom in to close .
All in all your photo is great. You have a great eye. You need to just tweak the photo in post editing.
Thing you should read up on is "depth of field" & "Lighting.

Shootist Loc: Wyoming

As a late comer to this thread let me say that your photo is a real keeper! At your invite I did copy your photo and play around with it a bit. With such a good photo the problem is loosing what makes it outstanding by trying to "improve" it. The lighting in the photo is magic to me and the softness and color is the very essence of what I think of a baby. The only things I found that even remotely added to the photo was to select everything except the face and "whiten" up the clothing. I tried a little saturation of the face but couldn't match the creamy/dreamy quality of the skin of the original.

A touch of color correction to clothing