I'm not much for receiving or giving comments, but since Candids are
near and dear to my heart, I have decided to give comment on every entry
in this challenge.
Besides the fact that children are far too easy to get candids of, this shot is too small and had unfortunate technical problems. The lighting is too harsh in some areas where as the shadows are too over powering in other areas. As a candid, it holds little to no interest for me. I look for something out of the ordinary, obscure, that sparks emotion in me by the subject or composition, and this just doesn't do it I'm afraid. It's a 3 from me.
This looks like a snapshot and not a particularly good one, I'm sorry to say. The background is too cluttered and the image is overly contrasty, i.e., blown out in the highlight areas and too dark in the shadow areas. If you had not included the title I would have thought this was a snap that caught the subject in mid-blink --- it's not a very flattering photo of the little girl. Next time, try to be aware of what you are including in the frame when you compose a shot. It is easy for the mind's eye to ignore a distracting background but the camera sees it all. As far as the contrasty image goes, it is a contrasty scene and difficult to shoot using automatic exposure settings. Your camera should have a basic EV mode which allows you to bracket exposures in this type of difficult lighting situation. It also helps to use some sort of reflector near the subject. This can be as simple as a sheet of white poster board, as is, or wrapped with aluminum foil.
The bright sunshine on her legs distracts me. Since half the subject is in shadow, and the other half is glaringly bright, I find it hard to see what the central subject of the picture is at a first glance. If you had composed the shot so that only her face was in the frame, it would have been a lot better, I think.