frustrated...

sekhar · Dec 22, 2012

Technical stuff aside, this is a cute, well composed picture...awesome pose/expression from your grandson!

keith foster · Dec 22, 2012

My suggestion would be to forget the on camera flash. The only thing it is good for IMHO is to fire off your external flash that is set on slave mode.
The best thing you could do after reading your manual a couple of times, is to learn to "see the light". I am not being a wise guy. When you learn to see where the light is and what it is doing you will vastly improve your shots.
Take the picture you posted here for example. When you look at this shot where is the light? (Not the flash)
what I see is a big beautiful window right behind them. There is your light. Just figure out what direction it is coming through the window and have them sit so the light bounces off something and into their faces.
I realize that sometimes you can't move them where you want them but if you went over to the window and asked them to turn to face you the light would still be much better than it is with the light behind them. Hope I explained myself well enough and didn't just sound like a babbling old man.
Read your manual and then go look for the light and somewhere around 10,000 shots you will have it down.

Lisablueeyes · Dec 22, 2012

keith foster said:
My suggestion would be to forget the on camera flash. The only thing it is good for IMHO is to fire off your external flash that is set on slave mode.
The best thing you could do after reading your manual a couple of times, is to learn to "see the light". I am not being a wise guy. When you learn to see where the light is and what it is doing you will vastly improve your shots.
Take the picture you posted here for example. When you look at this shot where is the light? (Not the flash)
what I see is a big beautiful window right behind them. There is your light. Just figure out what direction it is coming through the window and have them sit so the light bounces off something and into their faces.
I realize that sometimes you can't move them where you want them but if you went over to the window and asked them to turn to face you the light would still be much better than it is with the light behind them. Hope I explained myself well enough and didn't just sound like a babbling old man.
Read your manual and then go look for the light and somewhere around 10,000 shots you will have it down.[/QUOT

Thanks for the impute, it was very helpful
I knew the light at the window was a little much... But only after the photo was taken. I was so caught up with my grandson! I was not paying attention "Kindatook the picture on the fly".

keith foster · Dec 22, 2012

I know exactly what you mean. It happens to me all the time. I was taking picture at a high school basketball game this week. One of the teams has a bunch of very tall kids who can all dunk. I went to that game with the purpose of getting a shot of a dunk. I was positioned well had already locked focus on the rim and was just waiting for the dunk. The game was so good I totally got into it. The tall team got a steal and made a long pass to one of two of his team mates coming right at me. It was a thing of beauty and I was into the game. The kid with the ball made a perfect bounce pass just past the defender leading his team mate perfectly. The player went up and made an awesome jam. It was awesome. I didn't take a single picture or even think to bring my camera up. Nobody dunked the rest of the game. I made a 100 mile round trip and watched an entire game and didn't even take the shot I went there to get!

Sorry for the long story but I know about losing focus on the picture and getting wrapped up in the subject.

snowbear · Dec 22, 2012

One step at a time. Get to know the basic camera controls first, then add the technicals when you can. For a first couple of shots, these are not bad, at all.

Lisablueeyes · Dec 23, 2012

snowbear said:
One step at a time. Get to know the basic camera controls first, then add the technicals when you can. For a first couple of shots, these are not bad, at all.

Thanks

TamiAz · Dec 23, 2012

Lisa, DSLR's aren't as easy to use as people think. I was quite surprised at the amount of work it took to learn to use my camera. It took me a good 3 months just to learn how ISO, aperture, and shutter speed work together. Adding flash into the equation is more work.. I would try to learn to use your camera in natural light and once you get comfortable with that you can start playing with the flash..I tried to learn too much at one time and I was getting extremely frustrated.. Take one step at a time and you'll get there!!

Lisablueeyes · Dec 23, 2012

TamiAz said:
Lisa, DSLR's aren't as easy to use as people think. I was quite surprised at the amount of work it took to learn to use my camera. It took me a good 3 months just to learn how ISO, aperture, and shutter speed work together. Adding flash into the equation is more work.. I would try to learn to use your camera in natural light and once you get comfortable with that you can start playing with the flash..I tried to learn too much at one time and I was getting extremely frustrated.. Take one step at a time and you'll get there!!

I've always thought myself as a gadget girl... Well, once I finally had the camer in my hands.. I was oh "S^*#" what was I thinking... For now I will leave the setting on auto, and learn as I go! Hmmm I just read that I can add music to slide shows/movies! hmmm now to learn how to do that...

JohnWDavisJr · Dec 31, 2012

One of the best things out there now is YouTube, there a thousands of tutorials on lighting and dslr usage and just about anything photography. It was a good way for me to learn.

JD