Fix It Friday Flickr Fun

It's time for Fix It Friday, once again.  I love this photo, as I love taking photos of sweet little faces myself.  This is a great capture in it's original state, but - as is the case with most photos - a little tweaking couldn't hurt.

For this photo, I'm using Capture NX2 and Color Efex Pro.

I sharpened the eyes a tad

Used a gold reflector to shine light on the darker side of the face - which also gives the effect of sun light (so nice to have this filter!  No need to carry around reflectors when out on a shoot)

Cropped the photo leaving the stairwell in the background.  The mom who took this photo really doesn't like the clutter in the background, but I feel the stairwell gives texture and dimension to the photo.  If she were my client, I would crop both ways and discuss with her why I prefer the stairwell, but it's ultimately her call as she has to live with the photo. 

I also used another of my favorite tools, which is darken/lighten.  This darkens the borders and let's you lighten the center (I did not lighten) making your subject pop a bit.  Although I love the stairwell in the background, I don't want to see it very well.

I also did a slight color saturation and enhanced the blue of the baby's eyes.  The eye color of this child is beautiful, and I felt that if there were a touch of sunlight, this would be the color of this sweet child's eyes.

Took me all of 10 minutes to edit.  What do you think?  What changes would you make?  If I had more time, the only thing I would change of my edits would be to tone down the blue in the eyes just a tad, but I'm out of time.  Hope you enjoyed the before and after.  Thanks for stopping in.