Might be better closer to square, but this was how they ordered it.

It is really cute, but, watch the light spill from your background

Nice capture of the personality and interaction between the two.

I think a stronger crop would put the dogs eyes on the lower left third and the girls eyes on the upper right third. Unless you are going to put something in the empty space.

Jim,
there's that "thing" sticking out from the baby's stomach and the background is definitely too light. I'm not so sure about this one. I don't really see much chemistry between the kid and the dog and the crop really doesn't make it for me. Lots of potential but I don't think you quite got it.

Jim

The crop I suggested eliminates the 'thing'. But now that I look closer...don't take this the wrong way. That is a three fingered baby. Thanks for posting.

I guess I'm missing the light spill?

I think her pinky is bent under the end of the bone.

The "thing' is a stuffed animal.

I'd prefer a square crop, unless there were to be text or something in on the left.

I didn't thing there was any such thing as too light when the BG is supposed to be pure white 255/255/255?

Look at the back of the dog, the light is spilling on it and the head and the little girl's head. You are basically dealing with a giant light source and have to watch that it doesn't bounce onto your subjects.

Its the hardest part of getting high key correct, getting the background 100% white, yet not having that light spill onto your subjects

Zack Arias has a great post on this http://www.zarias.com/?p=71

Yeah, I see it now. I'll have to go look at the original, but it might be a case of me getting carried away with the dodge tool on the BG to clean it up some.

Zack's blog is where I first got the notion to try high-key. Good stuff.