Help and comments needed Please!

[Tyson]

I shoot with a n Olympus E500, I have both kit lens's. I can't seem to get a "Pro Quality" Image. Why, what am I doing wrong. I have tried several different ISO settings and other adjustments also. Please Look here and give me some ideas, any help at all even if it is basic info. What am I forgeting or not getting.
#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

 

[Alpha]

Digital isn't my specialty, but I can tell you that your problem appears to lie in post processing and ambient light.

All it takes to capture color is some color to capture. Colors tend to be richest under slightly subdued light, in the morning and late afternoon. Try shooting at those times of day, and I think you'll find that both the pleasantness of light falling on your subjects, and the saturation of the scenery will be much improved.

I would also encourage you to try shooting with a wider aperture if you're doing portrait work.

 

[stellar_gal]

Most of the images are underexposed and have too much depth of field. I'm not familiar with your camera, but maybe you can try aperature priority mode and blur the background more so your subjects stand out better. Some of the water horizons are crooked, so maybe you could straighten that out. Also the colors are fairly flat, although it looks like they were shot on an overcast day so its sort of hazy looking. It maybe also me a low quality lens that's not helping your images. Also try shooting people from different angles. It can be hard to get away from the face and body all looking straight at you and it can be kind of average looking too. Good work overall, just need to work on a few things and play with your camera setting and just practice more and more. I think #2 is my favorite as it looks the most natural and fun, just needs more exposure.

 

[NJMAN]

I would also encourage you to try shooting with a wider aperture if you're doing portrait work.

I agree. The depth of field is not shallow enough, and some of the background stuff is distracting.

NJ

 

[JIP]

Having a faster lens would increase the quality of your images greatly. Also it looks like some of your images are with a flash and if so what kind of flash are you using. If it is a pop-up flash on the camera (I dont know if this camera has one) that is a big one you need a better flash if you are going to use flash and you also need to get it off the top of the camera.

 

[Big Mike]

What do you mean by 'Pro Quality'?

In almost all of these, it appears you are using on-camera flash...which does help with outdoor portraits (when used as fill)...but in this case, it looks like too much of the exposure is coming from the flash...which makes the subjects look flat (boring). Try setting the FEC lower.

The last one, on the other hand, has some nice side lighting because the main light (sun) is off to her side and you are not over powering it with your flash.

It also looks like they could be improved with some post processing...maybe increase the contrast, saturation, sharpness etc.

 

[The_Traveler]

You might think about posting a link to a full-size image in the challenge gallery and let some others try the post-processing to see what the final images others can achieve so teh issues can be localized.

 

[LaFoto]

The major things have already been addressed in previous posts: aperture too small -> background too clear and distracting, flash too direct and too bright -> faces flat (and therefore boring), and with regards to composition: crooked horizon lines.

I feel many of these also further lack in the area of composition. Often parts of the children's limbs are cut off and in places that look random and like happens with many a snapshot shooter and their pics. From what I have learned right here on TPF joints should be a taboo for cropping into persons' limbs.

In the boy's pic (2) you can see that "fill-the-frame-compositions" do work with people-photography, though, so there is no saying that at all times the whole person needs to be within the frame (where would portraits go, eh? ). Also the funny one of the two girls pulling faces at each other (5) shows that of course (!) zooming in on only parts of a person is (very) permissible.

That one is my personal favourite of the series, by the way, and it may be the "lack of" background which helped it become my favourite. But it's also the funniest, and expressions like this are the most fleeting, which - to my mind - enhances their appeal (not to the teenaged girls, I'm afraid [!!!!!!!], but to most others ).

The last (which you also put into Critique) has so many artefacts across her face, I really wonder what brought those about?????????????