Frustrated and Concerned. This is the best my camera can do?

[mrpink]

"blurring out the back".. you mean BOKEH. the larger MM you use the more bokeh you get, with a larger fstop.. as in f1.8 at 85 mm will give you crazy bokeh
if your using your lens at 200 mm.. lets say at. f4 even, you'll still get some crazy bokeh.. as long as your at least 10 ft from your subject or close enough to get the whole subject in fame.. play play play!

No to this entire post. Not one bit of correct information.



To the OP. No that is not the best your camera can do, it is the best you can do right now. Learn, and practice what you learn will make you better. Do not go selling any lenses just to get other lenses that you still do not know how to fully use.







p!nK

 

[bumpylemon]

guys thanks alot. i apprecaite all the feedback. i will post the portraits i did today. I think they are kinda blah. but if i saw them on a facebook account i would say wow really good pics. everything ill post will not have been PP yet. thanks!


i forgot to add that i am having trouble with photos being over exposed like white out conditions when i lower the aperture (i think)

 

[bumpylemon]

i know people will ask me..."what are you trying to achieve in these pics" my answer i suppose is just a good pic. a pic that people think are good and decent. again i havent PP yet. so I will based on feedback. thanks!

I do notice that there is a lens spot on these ill have to fix after,

this one i was actually trying to get the railing to meet the bridge which leads to the subjects head.
1

this one i wish i lined the skyline up better. oh well
2

3

4

5

6

7

thanks!

 

[Edsport]

Most all digital photos needs to be sharpened. I don't see anything wrong with that lens. Once the photos are sharpened they seem fine. Here is a couple edits. I uploaded them to photobucket which takes some of the sharpness away but they still seem to be good photos. Before and after...

 

[bumpylemon]

i like what you did. i have sharpener pro...im guessing that should do the trick?

 

[pgriz]

Picture 1 – subject with rails and bridge meeting at head…
Is this a picture of the person or of the city? If the person, then I’d suggest the person needs to occupy more space in the picture. While the lines converging on the head are interesting (kinda), they are also distracting. Makes us wonder what’s the relevance of the rail and bridge to this person? Why did you choose to show it this way? What story do we come away with?

Picture 2 – subject looking left.
His head is in too much shade. The bright parts behind him pull away our eyes. You had the right idea to use a wide aperture and get the background out of focus, but you probably should have moved in closer still and then the background would have been much more out of focus. Either a fill flash or a bounce reflector would have added light to his face.

Picture 3 – subject looking to right of us.
Closeup is good, but the frame orientation would be better if it was portrait… which is what you’re shooting, right? Scalping him could have been avoided in portrait mode. I find his hand to be distracting, but the exposure is good, as is your angle of view from lower down.

Picture 4 – subject looking at camera with a dark blob beside him…
The dark blob is in the middle of a bright field, and that’s where the eye goes. You’d have done better to shoot from chest level, upwards, to eliminate the distracting background. Face needs a little more light.

Picture 5 – subject looking serious.
Exposure is good, focus is good. Background very distracting, and that bright blown area above his head is pulling the eyes away. Hand positioned on chin looks awkward to me.

Picture 6 – closeup.
Need more light on face. Background is bright and blown. Either you blow it all out, or you need to choose a better angle where the contrast between the subject and the background is not so extreme. Focus is good.

Picture 7 – green person.
His pose looks a little stiff to me. (j/k) good exposure, good angle, head positioned at power point (double rule of thirds), shadows are strong and define the form, but are not too harsh.

To anwer your original question... It's not the camera. But as various posters have noted... you'll learn to squeeze the quality out of what you have. It's a bit like playing the piano. The fingers are there. The keys are there. Just have to press them in the right sequence and for the right amount of time...

 

[sobolik]

Don't get frustrated, just shoot all the time and eventually you'll become more accustomed to what works and what doesn't. I'm still new to photography so I'm sure others will have more to say, but here's my .02.

1:
The problem here is focus, which is what you choose. Autofocus picks up on things, but in the end you have to make sure it has picked up on the right things. The bird's rear is in focus, but I doubt you wanted that as the subject

2:
With this photo the downside is the crop. Since the subject is looking left, the photo should be cropped so that there is more space on the left and the subject is more towards the right. This way it gives space for the subject to look. If the turkey were looking towards the right in this photo it would look much better.

Other than that, I would play with it more in post. What are you using for software (if anything)?

3:
Nothing bad to say here. Is this the quality you're hoping for? Do you feel better about this shot than the others? If that's the case, then look at your shots like this and don't beat yourself down.

i didnt crop or PP anything. just shot and uploaded. the last picture i really liked. i wanted more depth of field but thats my weakness and what im trying to learn

"i didnt crop or PP anything. just shot and uploaded"

You will find that the high end cameras REQUIRE POST PROCESSING. Point and shoots deliver sharper photos that a DSLR. DSLR's REQUIRE sharpening. Point and shoots apply a lot of sharpening in the camera.

The photo "pop" and "pizazz" is produced in the post processing. Arizona Highways magazine wants NO SHARPENING at all applied to photos submitted. They want to do it.

 

[Edsport]

i like what you did. i have sharpener pro...im guessing that should do the trick?

I used photoshop but post a shot after it's sharpened and we'll see if you did a good job...

 

[bumpylemon]

this is crazy. i love learning. these pics are crazy good compared to what ive done in the past. I love that i can only get better. the sun was tricky in boston today. thanks for writing that up! sharpening right now.

 

[bumpylemon]

haha im sure he wont be flattered by this...im gonna take it that this is to much sharpening? although i do love the way this looks...nitty and gritty.


before

after

 

[pgriz]

Sharpening is like salt. Too little, and its blah bland. Too much and it spoils the dish. The trick is to stop at just the right point... and that takes experience.

 

[bumpylemon]

the picture before and after looks completely different...in a good way..went from eww to ok. lol isnt there a type of photography out there where the blacks are deep and the sharpening looks like that? ive seen lots of pics like that

 

[usayit]

Some of the EXIF from the 1st photo in thread.

Exposure Bias Value: 0
Exposure Mode: Auto exposure
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Exposure Time: 1 / 200
Flash: Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light detected
FNumber: 5.6
Focal Length: 200
Focal Length In 35mm Film: 300
ISO Speed Ratings: 100

My thoughts are shutter speed is too slow for handheld and f/5.6 @ 200 isn't going to be he lens' sweet spot. I'm also kinda wondering why the flash fired.

 

[bumpylemon]

Some of the EXIF from the 1st photo in thread.

Exposure Bias Value: 0
Exposure Mode: Auto exposure
Exposure Program: Aperture priority
Exposure Time: 1 / 200
Flash: Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, return light detected
FNumber: 5.6
Focal Length: 200
Focal Length In 35mm Film: 300
ISO Speed Ratings: 100

My thoughts are shutter speed is too slow for handheld and f/5.6 @ 200 isn't going to be he lens' sweet spot. I'm also kinda wondering why the flash fired.

beats me man...im just trying to learn haha. i think it flashed to lighten the foreground? maybe lol

 

[Edsport]

You did pretty good with the sharpening. It's now alot better than the original. A tad bit oversharpened mabye but not bad. Sometimes you can sharpen the eyes more then the rest of the image. Once the eyes are sharp then the rest don't matter so much. Some people sharpen the eyes and soften the skin, especially with female models. Anyways i think you did good and as you can see you now have a pretty sharp photo which should make you not as frustrated. Keep the shutter speed up and you should be fine...