Another Try - Gimme that smile

[astrayasagiri]

Here's another try when we are in the mall.
I want to take a pic of people's smile All using Canon EOS 1100D

I used one of my acquaintances' daughter for the trial.
#1

#2 - I saw her doing this and saw this an a opportunity to get a pic of someone's enjoyment on a food. ( out of focus though)

#3 - I want to try bokeh.

 

[Designer]

#3 FTW

And it probably should have been in vertical format.

 

[astrayasagiri]

#3 FTW

And it probably should have been in vertical format.

noted on that

 

[The_Traveler]

these are badly out of focus.
you might do so tries to see if the focussing mechanism is functioning correctly.

 

[jcdeboever]

I wonder what they would look like without the glamour treatment? Pretty girl, like the capture of character.

 

[astrayasagiri]

these are badly out of focus.
you might do so tries to see if the focussing mechanism is functioning correctly.

Maybe my hands are bad, I don't have an IS on my 50mm.

 

[cauzimme]

They are all out of focus.
Photography is about capturing light to compose an image. Capturing light means looking at it, you have to be aware of it, it's not always easy, especially at first. When shooting help you with your hand. Look at the 2 sides. Which side is better lit, which side have strong shadow, move your subject. At that stage it might be a pain to carry reflectors, but try to have your subject under something, a tree, a bridge, under a shadow, and mesure for her, not the environment, you want the eyes to be lit, the eyes are the most important feature in a portrait. In editorial, fashion, and some other domain rules don't always apply but for lifestyle portrait yes!

It's a shame the second one is that out of focus, would have been my favorite.
I like the idea behind the third one, sadly, it's not well executed as your lil model is underlit and the color balance is just too yellow.

 

[astrayasagiri]

Thank you cauzimme for the ligthing advice.
I appreciate all your inputs.

 

[robbins.photo]

Maybe my hands are bad, I don't have an IS on my 50mm.

What camera body are you using? I'm assuming it's a canon since you mentioned IS. Ok, so for sharp pictures, you don't need IS, particularly on a short focal length like 50mm. In general you do want to make sure your shooting at shutter speeds higher than the focal length of your lens. So if your shooting at 50mm, your shutter speed shouldn't drop below 1/50.

However in most cases for "candids" when you can I recommend you go higher on the shutter speed, say 1/120 or 1/200 especially if you have enough light. The reason for this is that if the subject moves you won't be introducing motion blur.

The second tip is to take control of your camera's autofocus system. The camera will choose a focus point based on the highest point of contrast from all the points you give it to choose from. When possible for shooting people I prefer to reduce the number of focal points to one and place that on the subjects eye.

When people look at a photo the first thing their eyes are drawn to is the subjects eyes, so if they are sharp the photo will look sharp. If not, well it looks like a blurry photo.

 

[cauzimme]

Also one of the best light tip that someone gave me is to think of light as a watch, at noon the sun is on top, creating harsh edge light, it can be an interesting light, but not for beginners and not for what you were looking for. As the day pass, the sun move creating different shadow.

This video is pretty great to see how light affects your subject
Trippy Video Shows How a Person's Face Changes Depending on the Lighting

 

[astrayasagiri]

Maybe my hands are bad, I don't have an IS on my 50mm.

What camera body are you using? I'm assuming it's a canon since you mentioned IS. Ok, so for sharp pictures, you don't need IS, particularly on a short focal length like 50mm. In general you do want to make sure your shooting at shutter speeds higher than the focal length of your lens. So if your shooting at 50mm, your shutter speed shouldn't drop below 1/50.

However in most cases for "candids" when you can I recommend you go higher on the shutter speed, say 1/120 or 1/200 especially if you have enough light. The reason for this is that if the subject moves you won't be introducing motion blur.

The second tip is to take control of your camera's autofocus system. The camera will choose a focus point based on the highest point of contrast from all the points you give it to choose from. When possible for shooting people I prefer to reduce the number of focal points to one and place that on the subjects eye.

When people look at a photo the first thing their eyes are drawn to is the subjects eyes, so if they are sharp the photo will look sharp. If not, well it looks like a blurry photo.

Correct I am using an entry level 1100d to learn. My autofocus is fd up, but i think i do better in manual.

Ill create a new thread for new ones as suggested.

Thanks to all for the tips.