Got my Rebel XS

[bww77]

First decent pic with the 70-300mm lense

 

[ypperin]

Congrats on the new equipment! The pic seems a tad under exposed ?

 

[dtornabene1]

O.K. Remember to post specifications for each photo, such as shutter speed, ISO, etc. I looked at your EXIF data and see a couple of problems.

You shot this in aperture priority mode with an ISO of 200 and f/5. By doing this, the camera figured the only way to get this exposure correct you need a 1/2 shutter speed.

This is not going to work. While I do suggest starting out, use this and shutter priority (or time value) mode. These help you understand the basics of the camera's functions. You will eventually move to manual.

Before you do, you need to understand a few things. In this room, ideally you would have used a diffused flash. Let's say you don't have an external diffused flash. Fine, pop the on-camera flash and put a piece of tissue paper in front of it.

Also, increase your ISO. This camera will take fine photographs with little to zero noticeable noise up to 640 ISO. Be confident and also, use a larger aperture. f/5 didn't work here. Why? Because all the benefits of shooting with f/5, more of the photograph in focus, went out the window once you had an exposure time of 1/2 seconds.

I am going to guess your lens only has apertures of 4-5.6. This is a guess, because I don't know the exact lens you are using. So, you are stuck with the aperture of f/5. Fine, change the camera into manual mode. Compose the shot at the focal length you want, this one is done at 205mm. Now, add the flash and change the shutter speed to something more like 1/100 of a second.

I don't know if you lens is image stabilized or not. If it is the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 III USM, you really should not shoot slower than your focal length. So if you are shooting at 205mm, generally you should shoot with a shutter speed of 1/200 of second. At an ISO of 200 with this lens and f/5 aperture, you will get a black photograph. So, bump up the ISO to 800, use the flash with a tissue, try it at 1/200.

Good luck to you.

-Nick