30 year old Minolta 50 mm lens

[Nod]

The exif data shows: camera Sony A350, f 1.7 @ 1/250 ISO 200, Center metered, manual focus, with a brightness value of 3.37. Auto white balance. They look a little dark to me. Did you have any filters on the lens?

 

[Geaux]

My dad gave me an old bag of Minolta stuff that I have no need for lol, including a 50mm Maxxum 1.4. Really wish I could use it on my digital body, but I shoot Nikon

 

[vtf]

One problem is you are shooting wide open & very few lenses are sharp @ maximum armature. Try upping your ISO & stopping the lens down @ least one stop.

I do not know about your camera but with mine the white balance setting definitely affects the colour of my RAW files. The pics you have shown are on the cool side, definitely not warm.

^^^^I agree. Try iso at 400/800 with out flash., 100 and 200 are more for outdoor sunlight. These do not appear to have flash used so iso has to be upped. Life is easier with flash, it allows you to be more flexible with the exposure triangle adjustments. It will take time.
My suggestion- use ocf, set your 50mm at f4-5, shutter at 125, iso at 400 and adjust as needed. Keep practicing. I really think your biggest issue is the dof at 1.7 and indoor without using flash you will not get the sharp pictures you want. Good Luck :thumbup:

 

[Pete'sGirl]

I used no filters. Autofocus has been hard to get both eyes in focus - is it possible? If so, HOW? As far as PP, I am so inexperienced with it, and my Photoshop C5 trial just ran out. Any suggestions for a cheaper PP program? While I was using Photoshop, I was following online tutorials for easy things, like getting rid of wrinkles and teeth whitening. I tried a tutorial on Gaussian blur, but ended up with a scary mess. Even basic sharpening has not been easy. And shooting in RAW is a foreign language to me. I am not there yet in my Bryan Peterson and Scott Kelby books yet. Also, any suggestions for books?

Thank you for all your suggestions and help. Glad to know it is not the lens! I guess father knows best after all! I can practice more and get better, but I can not afford a new lens right now (I am on maternity leave without pay.)

 

[vtf]

I used no filters. Autofocus has been hard to get both eyes in focus - is it possible? If so, HOW? As far as PP, I am so inexperienced with it, and my Photoshop C5 trial just ran out. Any suggestions for a cheaper PP program? While I was using Photoshop, I was following online tutorials for easy things, like getting rid of wrinkles and teeth whitening. I tried a tutorial on Gaussian blur, but ended up with a scary mess. Even basic sharpening has not been easy. And shooting in RAW is a foreign language to me. I am not there yet in my Bryan Peterson and Scott Kelby books yet. Also, any suggestions for books?

Thank you for all your suggestions and help. Glad to know it is not the lens! I guess father knows best after all! I can practice more and get better, but I can not afford a new lens right now (I am on maternity leave without pay.)

With your lens at 1.7 or 2.8 it is possible to miss focus on one eye and not on the other. Its not your auto focus, its the lens so wide open. Get it down to f4-5 and you will see a difference but you will need to use your ocf..
I would work on focus and lighting before worrying about skin treatments. I believe gimp is free and is a good program.

Your pictures are a little soft but not disasterous. Some selective sharpening would help. Adding a flash would brighten up the scene and make it easier to make the adjustments you need. Do not use on camera flash with these closeups.
Keep practicing, it takes time.:thumbup:

 

[Nod]

Faststone Image Viewer is another good, free program.

 

[Ron Evers]

I use PhotoScape, a free download to edit jpegs.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

GIMP is free and decent from what I've read here.

Don't worry about RAW for now. Don't worry about special effects either. Just the basic PP such as sharpening, curves, etc

 

[Pete'sGirl]

My dad gave me an old bag of Minolta stuff that I have no need for lol, including a 50mm Maxxum 1.4. Really wish I could use it on my digital body, but I shoot Nikon

Send it to me!


I downloaded GIMP, and so far I like it... it will take some figuring out though, that is for sure!