Few more shots from the christening, let me know your thoughts!

[JdWiding]

These shots are from the restaurant after the christening. the last one is from the christening itself.

 

[JdWiding]

guess this set is just not interesting enough eh?

 

[Raj_55555]

Yes yes it is! She's gorgeous, and oh! the smile

I love #1 & #3.. Don't find #4 & #5 quite that interesting though. Great shots

 

[KmH]

The light quality and direction in the restaurant doesn't work real well. Light wise the child does not 'pop' from the backgrounds.

The child has dark eye sockets (raccoon eyes), and her facial mask is mostly under exposed.

Fill light was needed in the restaurant.
Using flash lets the photographer control the ambient light exposure separately from the flash exposure.
Having the background darker than the subject is what makes a subject 'pop'.

The modern day notion of 'pop' is codifed in the visual art truism that states - Light advances, dark recedes.
Visual artists have been using 'pop' for a couple of thousand years now.

 

[JdWiding]

Thanks Raj, She is beautiful! the other pictures was just kind of for my sister in law to remember the small details.

KmH: Exactly the comment I was reaching for!! I'm trying to learn and grow with this, besides some playing in the past with a canon eos this was the first day using a DSLR! these are the comments that will help me produce much better photos! So to rectify my short comings in this instance what would be the easiest solution? just using the flash? couldn't I also rectify this in lightroom?

 

[The_Traveler]

The backgrounds are really intrusive in the first two, although that could be fixed reasonably easily.
The second one could really be a terrific family shot is edited a bit.

I don't know what happened to the last one but the color is way, way, way off and the woman's arm looks very big

 

[KmH]

just using the flash?

Well, use a flash.
Your options are to use the low power, small, built-in flash, a more powerful hot shoe flash that has a tilting and swiveling flash head so you can use it and a bounce card to bounce the light, or an off the camera (OCF) hot shoe flash unit that gives you a lot more options.

couldn't I also rectify this in lightroom?

Yes, but it is better to get a photo as close to right in the camera as possible than it is to post process it. When you add exposure post process to under exposed areas you make image noise more visible. Digital Camera Image Noise: Concept and Types

Plus you want to set your camera to make a file type that has plenty of editing headroom (bit depth) if you want to use LR or any other editing application.

I suspect you don't yet know your camera has several light metering modes you can choose from. Understanding Camera Metering and Exposure

I also suspect you don't know how to use the rear LCD feature that shows you the image histogram.
When we shoot film we expose for the shadows and let the highlights take care of themselves.
Digital photos are exactly the opposite - we need to expose for the highlights and let the shadows take care of themselves.

It is called Expose-To-The-Right (ETTR) and it means to the right of the histogram.
Optimizing Exposure
ETTR
Exposing to the right - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


PHOTO EDITING TUTORIALS

• Overview: Digital Photo Editing Workflow (NEW)

Image Files

• Understanding Bit Depth
• Understanding Image Types: JPEG & TIFF
• Understanding RAW Files: Why Should I Use RAW?

Tones & Contrast

• Understanding Histograms, Part 1: Tones & Contrast
• Understanding Histograms, Part 2: Luminosity & Color
• Using the "Levels" Tool in Photoshop
• Using the "Curves" Tool in Photoshop

 

[agp]

#2 is my favorite. That expression is adorable.

 

[JdWiding]

Traveler: Thanks guys, I like the edit to #2, I guess I needed to crop just a little more, but looks better.
The other one, was just a weird lighting situation, blue and yellow lights... it was just weird.

KMH: Thanks for the links, I will be reading through them all today. Question in reguard to the flash, I have the oppertunity to get my hands on a pre-owned Nikon sb 900 speedlight for 300.00 maybe 250.00 in your opinion is it worth the investment?

 

[The_Traveler]

Traveler: Thanks guys, I like the edit to #2, I guess I needed to crop just a little more, but looks better.
The other one, was just a weird lighting situation, blue and yellow lights... it was just weird.

Crop, darken and blur the background, sharpen the foreground