First photo

[mom2eight]

My 13 year old daughter. Used a tri pod but still looks blurry. It was a very over cast day, but still seems very washed out to me. What could I do take make this look more like a portrait and less like a snap shot.
CC wanted, Thanks

 

[MarcPPhotography]

Higher shutter speed, bigger f stop, maybe 3.5. Edit in a program like photoshop

 

[Josh66]

First, read this:
Why Focus-Recompose Sucks

Not sure if that's to blame in this particular case, but it's still very good information to know.

It's possible that she moved a little on the swing, causing the blurriness. It's hard to tell without seeing the full size version.

Is this straight out of the camera? You'd be surprised how much better your pictures will look with a little bit of PP attention. I'm not saying that you can magically make a bad picture good, but you can make a good picture great.

The exif on this photo says that it was shot at 28mm. I would zoom in more (or use a longer lens) and fill the frame more.
I mean, the top third of the frame...pretty much nothing going on there.

Her right leg is casting a shadow... It looks like you were using the pop-up flash. Outside in the daytime, you probably could have taken this without using flash.

 

[mom2eight]

Thanks Josh,
Yes this is stright out of the camera. I used a speed light since it was so over cast, but I guess I didn't need it. Your right I should have came in closer, but im always worried about cutting peoples limbs off. I'm gonna play with it in photoshop and see what I can do to make it better. I'll post my pp photo when im done.

 

[transformed]

Hi mom2eight-

It does look like maybe some aperture and shutter adjustments might make a difference. And photoshop is indeed the way to go, though it can't fix everything. I'm NO expert, but when I first started taking photos the very first thing I focused on in post processing was cropping. Just cropping alone can totally transform an image. I am enclosing an edit with some cropping, smoothing, contrast, and a little vignette. (some people hate vignette- I still like it ) I probably would crop this even further because I think the white tennis shoes are a bit distracting, but I thought maybe you wanted the full body look.

Good luck and keep shooting!

 

[mom2eight]

Is this any better. I have very limited skills in photoshop and for some reason I didn't take this in RAW!

 

[mom2eight]

Haha yes her shoes are distracting! Is it ok to cut her feet off when cropping?

 

[Josh66]

It looks like an improvement to me. I would maybe pan to the left some though, just so her toe isn't so close to the edge of the frame.

 

[Josh66]

Haha yes her shoes are distracting! Is it ok to cut her feet off when cropping?

The rule of thumb is to crop limbs between the joints - never at the joint.

So, in this case, you would want to crop it to somewhere between the knee and ankle.

EDIT
I'm not necessarily saying that it needs cropped, but if you do crop it - between the joints is the "rule".

 

[freybear3]

 

[keith foster]

I like the re-edit shot better, less dead space and better contrast. I like freybear's crop better still because I think the feet are distracting. The white tennis shoes and somehow her feet appear unnaturally large to me in proportion to her body.

 

[Josh66]

freybear's versions are a good example of cropping between joints vs. cropping at the joint. The first one looks much better to me.

 

[milesy]

also was this photo taken at max aperture...because if you are trying to get the portrait look ideally you would have the background of out focus - to bring all the attention onto the subject

 

[mom2eight]

I really do like Freybears crop. My poor child does have really big feet! Size 9 in womans. Thanks for all the CC, it really helps.

 

[Josh66]

After looking at this a little more - yes, you probably could have done it without flash, but I think your use of flash here helps separate her from the background.

Only down side I see is the shadow it caused - which seems to be within your abilities to deal with in PP.