A few questions and some C&C

adrienne.a · Jan 31, 2011

#1
So this first one her face seems a little bit OOF, the shutter speed was 1/640s, ISO 400... would different settings have helped? Also, I wasn't using a tripod, perhaps using one would eliminate the focus issues?

#2
Seems a little dark and it was snowing...Are the snow flakes in front of her ok or are they distracting? I kind of feel like they are distracting, but I have no idea how to remove them, LOL

and #3
This one her face is dark, is there any way that I can lighten the picture up without exposure time (Lizzie will NOT stay put for more than a second, normally I just catch her tail end in one corner of the frame :lol:

)...and again with the snowflakes in front...shutter speed: 1/1000s ISO 400

and #4
Just playing with focus here

Also, the images aren't high res because I had to link from my facebook

bigtwinky · Jan 31, 2011

For the third image, your camera is metering the whole scene which contains very white and very dark, so something has to give. If shooring raw, you can probably bring some of tge dark back. Other option is having some fill flash to brighten the darks

adrienne.a · Jan 31, 2011

bigtwinky said:
For the third image, your camera is metering the whole scene which contains very white and very dark, so something has to give. If shooring raw, you can probably bring some of tge dark back. Other option is having some fill flash to brighten the darks

I was shooting raw and I did manage to brighten up her face a lot (it was really bad before) but not enough as you can see...Thanks for the idea about the flash, I'll have to try that next time

I didn't even consider the flash because I was shooting outside and it seemed so bright with all the snow :lol:

It's not obvious at all that I am a total n00b eh?

Jeatley · Jan 31, 2011

I agree with the big! But I think the last picture is kinda cool! But I love DOF

Patrice · Jan 31, 2011

Your first image does seem a bit soft. Unfortunately the image has no exif data that I can read. What were your focal length and aperture?

Looking at the image with greater magnification there might be case to argue that the pieces of her parka that are closer to the camera are sharper than her eyes. That is a focus issue. Wide apertures have very shallow depth of field and if you or your subject move even just a little bit between composing / focussing and shutter release then you might end up with a blurry main feature in the image.

D-B-J · Jan 31, 2011

The first one seems as if the focal plane is slightly infront of her eyes, resulting in a lost focus. The second one doesn't do much for me, and the third is a good use of DOF, but i find it not too interesting.

Keep shooting!

Regards,
Jake

adrienne.a · Jan 31, 2011

I see what you mean about her parka being in sharper than her eye, I noticed that too but I thought it was just me...I had the focal length set at f/7 (I think that's a ratio?? sorry, I'm still a n00b, haha), and I didn't tinker with the aperture so I am not sure what it was set for...I tried looking at the properties of the photo in my editing program but I couldn't find it

D-B-J · Jan 31, 2011

adrienne.a said:
I see what you mean about her parka being in sharper than her eye, I noticed that too but I thought it was just me...I had the focal length set at f/7 (I think that's a ratio?? sorry, I'm still a n00b, haha), and I didn't tinker with the aperture so I am not sure what it was set for...I tried looking at the properties of the photo in my editing program but I couldn't find it

F7 is your aperture. Aperture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regards,
Jake

adrienne.a · Jan 31, 2011

Thanks!! LOL

As you can tell I am still figuring out all this fancy camera stuff

I appreciate your patience!

daarksun · Jan 31, 2011

when you shooting like in the first image use one of the eyes as a focus point. Color is good, maybe a bit on the hot side.

Snow is difficult to shot against since it can look blownout so easily. I like the composition of the images. Nice DOF in the last image.

amoncur · Jan 31, 2011

If you're shooting at 640, a tripod isn't going to help with OOF shots. More likely, the girl was moving, which is out of your control. Typically 1/100 sec is fast enough shutter to get sharp images, assuming the subject isn't moving around and you're not shooting with a long lens that has no IS.