C&C Please

[Dominantly]

For that 50mm, you could have brought your subject closer which would have put more distance between your background and your subject, which is important for a "blurry background"

Basically if you have a subject that is right up on something you want to blur away, you need to get close to them and open up that Aperture.

 

[DaveLe]

Dominantly, I read one of your recent posts on WB and the affect of spot metering on a gray object. The msg I am referring to is the two turtles.

How to you spot meter for WB, then recompose and focus? I've always been puzzled about the internal metering (including using a grey card). Once you meter, you are set?

I really appreciate your input.

 

[AnotherNewGuy]

You are worrying too much about blurring out the background when the foreground is clearly off focus. I would pull your zoom back out and practice zooming in and focusing on the eyes. Then zoom out while holding that focus. The telephoto will give you the bg effect you want.

 

[Dominantly]

In that shot I was actually metering for the exposure and not the color temperature. But in doing that, the camera correctly selected the appropriate white balance for me. To do this, I shot in manual mode so my settings were consistent for my scene as long as the same lighting was hitting it.
There are a couple other ways to do this, like setting your exposure off a Sunny blue sky.

 

[DaveLe]

In that shot I was actually metering for the exposure and not the color temperature. But in doing that, the camera correctly selected the appropriate white balance for me. To do this, I shot in manual mode so my settings were consistent for my scene as long as the same lighting was hitting it.
There are a couple other ways to do this, like setting your exposure off a Sunny blue sky.

I think I get it. You place the setting to spot metering, then use your exposure meter to determine the best F-Stop / Shutter / ISO, then point it at your subject and shoot?

I'm trying to figure out the actual steps used on the camera to meter for color temperature.

 

[Dominantly]

Yup.

You just have to make sure the same light that is hitting your "reference" is hitting your subject. Your light meter is after all measuring the light reflecting off it, so you want to keep that fairly consistent.
Example, if you were shooting those turtles with the sun behind you, you wouldn't turn towards the sun and reference your card in that direction, it would give you an incorrect exposure.

 

[FarrahJ]

by "soft"...I mean out of focus...even with a shallow DOF... a portrait in my mind means SHARP eyes.

 

[The_Traveler]

 

[linpelk]

Just a thought with picture #2. If you would have shot from the other side of the basket you would have had some nice natural light on your subject. I like the moment you have managed to capture, but I would have liked to have seen what it looked like from the "lit" side of his face.

 

[SrBiscuit]

with that lens wide open the dof is razor thin. the slightest movement will throw focus to the wrong thing.