Fallby
Photomom1981Comment by FrankRobinson: Hi Monica, welcome to the Critique Zone! Naturally everything I might say is subjective, so take anything you might find useful...
My initial impression of this is that it is very bright, and very yellow. There is a hugh contrast between most of the photo and the eyes, which is (to me) a little unsettling and some areas of interest (around the hands and apple) are lost off the bottom. I have to be honest, I struggle to find it appealing. Why?
Technically: You have a really sharp camera / lens combo there, I know, I have it too. With such a small aperture you should have a seriously sharp picture throughout, but it's not quite there. The ISO setting is also introducing some unnecessary noise. I would drop that to 100 and use maybe f6.3 at most on this. The shutter should still be plenty fast enough - I would still set it at 1/160 which should make it a little darker than you have it, bringing some of that lovely detail back. The lighting is also rather harsh on such delicate skin.
Artistically: This really needs to be razor sharp - and there is no reason it couldn't be, even if you have to manually focus (focus on the eyes!). In composition terms, as I said I feel it is 'cut off' a little high - maybe more apple could be in there for contrast? Also, it is worth trying to compose so that the eyes are on a 'thirds' intersection.
Post: You say that you adjusted everything, normally I stick to sharpness (before and after resizing), curves for contrast and a very light touch on the hue/sat. For advanced editing I will normally play with dodge and burn but that's about it. Remember, the more you process, the more you lose what was there in the first place!
In summary, this is a fairly pretty shot of your child (?) - but I reckon you can produce something better with the gear and eye for a cute moment that you clearly have.
Photographer found comment helpful.