HELP, First Portrait Shot CC

[ryan_caldero]

Ok, so this is my first post and this is my first shot using indoor lights for portrait shots. I do not know why the pictures are not coming out sharp. I was using portrait mode and one picture was some what sharp and one was not. I posted both and with the settings I used. I tried manual with same results. I used a canon 50D with an EFS 18-200MM zoom lens, both pics where shot at 50mm

1:

ISO 400
1/60
f5.0

2:

ISO 400
1/40
f4.5

 

[chito beach]

are these handheld? your exposure time is much slower than your flash sync.

 

[vtf]

With the size of the lens in use and the shutter speed only at 1/60 and focal range at 60mm you're at the verge of motion blur. Did you use a tripod, if not my suggestion would be on next try. I could be wrong.

 

[ryan_caldero]

I did not use my tripod which I had but my lame a$$ did not use it. I could have been at 50mm, give or take...

 

[ryan_caldero]

are these handheld? your exposure time is much slower than your flash sync.

If it was much slower where should it have been?, these were handheld...

 

[ryan_caldero]

With the size of the lens in use and the shutter speed only at 1/60 and focal range at 60mm you're at the verge of motion blur. Did you use a tripod, if not my suggestion would be on next try. I could be wrong.

Yea I did NOT use my tripod and my lame a$$ had it with me, but should have used it. Any other tips? Suggestions?

 

[oldmacman]

First, stop calling yourself lame a$$. You actually have a pretty decent pic here and if it's your first attempt, then it is pretty good. I especially like the first pic. I really get the sense that the little guy loves his older brother. With some colour correction and sharpening, it is a very nice picture. I am not sure if you were trying to get the lights on the tree, but it doesn't look like it the way this was shot. Keep in mind that many of us still post process images after capture. Some have to do more than others. Keep shooting. Here's an edit to see a possible pp:

 

[vtf]

First, stop calling yourself lame a$$. You actually have a pretty decent pic here and if it's your first attempt, then it is pretty good. I especially like the first pic. I really get the sense that the little guy loves his older brother. With some colour correction and sharpening, it is a very nice picture. I am not sure if you were trying to get the lights on the tree, but it doesn't look like it the way this was shot. Keep in mind that many of us still post process images after capture. Some have to do more than others. Keep shooting. Here's an edit to see a possible pp:

ditto, nice edit.

 

[ConverseMan]

Keep in mind anything under 1/60th is going to be pretty hard to hold still. You might want to try bumping up the ISO to 800 and turning the shutter speed to about 1/100. I would imagine your second picture is blurry because you were shooting at 1/40th. That not the easiest speed to shoot handheld.

I agree though - nice 1st shot.

 

[ryan_caldero]

Thanks... Yea I was going to process them but didnt since I was not happy with how sharp they did not come out, but I will keep in mind to bump up the ISO and shutter speed and USE my tripod if need be.. You guys make me feel better since I was beating down on myself... I will try again and see what magic I can pull off......
The PP came out slick! what did you do?
Again much thanks....

 

[chito beach]

Thanks... Yea I was going to process them but didnt since I was not happy with how sharp they did not come out, but I will keep in mind to bump up the ISO and shutter speed and USE my tripod if need be.. You guys make me feel better since I was beating down on myself... I will try again and see what magic I can pull off......
The PP came out slick! what did you do?
Again much thanks....

90% of all images will be soft and need sharpening out of camera, Just think of PP as our digital darkroom. your image is complete until you have processed it. :thumbup:

 

[ryan_caldero]

First, stop calling yourself lame a$$. You actually have a pretty decent pic here and if it's your first attempt, then it is pretty good. I especially like the first pic. I really get the sense that the little guy loves his older brother. With some colour correction and sharpening, it is a very nice picture. I am not sure if you were trying to get the lights on the tree, but it doesn't look like it the way this was shot. Keep in mind that many of us still post process images after capture. Some have to do more than others. Keep shooting. Here's an edit to see a possible pp:

nice PP, do you wanna tell me what you did?

 

[oldmacman]

nice PP, do you wanna tell me what you did?

Sure:
In photoshop I did the following:
- adjusted the colour balance so that it is much cooler. I didn't keep track of the exact numbers, but I leaned into the blue, green and cyan
- ran the shadow and highlight correction to get the image close to a good exposure
- duplicated the layer and set the blend mode to screen and adjusted the opacity to about 20%
- masked this layer so that only the boys are affected
- duplicated the original image again and multiplied to deepen the colours in the background.
- I masked this layer so that the boys were not affected.
- I sharpened the image and leaned a little into over-sharpening it.
- flattened the image and duplicated then applied a Gaussian blur
- masked the blur so only the background was affected
- adjusted the overall image clarity in LR3 by -5

Not a real simple fix, but the colour correction and sharpening is going to get to 90% of the way there. The rest is just personal preference and adjustments to taste.

 

[Hannah2]

That is a pretty awesome looking edit. Thanks for being willing to share your steps. I haven't made much use of shadow/highlight correction or multiply on the background. New stuff to try.

And very nice shot, IMO!

 

[NikonNewbie]

I really like the 1st one, the second one like you mentioned wasn't so sharp...
Hell, good go!