I SO SO SO want this! CC? I've been studying and practicing

[AMOMENT]

THANKS! Yes, sorry SB700.

 

[pgriz]

Nothing wrong with wanting the learning curve to speed up. BUT. Any skill takes time to assimilate. You may get your head wrapped around the subject, and that's good, but until you get it to the point where you've internalized the process (ie, not thinking), you are still going to be "grinding gears". And the best way I know to get up the learning curve is to do lots and lots of practice (did I mention Lots of Practice?). MLeek's point is that if you jump around too much and don't get each element down more or less in turn, you'll delay the moment where things start to flow. What did mother say? take small bites, chew slowly and thoroughly, swallow, digest, and then continue. You've got a beautiful daughter, and obviously a supportive spouse. Good environment to make things happen.

Your focus seems to be pretty good. Since you got a flash now, try Kerbouchard's suggestions. If that doesn't work, remember that one of the key skills for any photographer is learning to use light. Small lights close to your subject (as in direct flash) give harsh highlights and shadows. Large surface lights (as in bouncing the flash onto a white surface) give much more pleasing gradual shadows. Try it both ways and see the difference.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Patience is a virtue. Hurry the F*#k up is not.

 

[bazooka]

Do you have a good understanding of the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO? If not, I agree with MLeek, put the flash aside for now and work with constant lighting. Do you have a window you could put her in front of? Windows that do not have the sun shining directly into make absolutely beautiful, studio-quality light. Just make sure you set your white balance to shade.

 

[MLeeK]

I am sorry, but you are NOT going to get this by using that flash. You are just making it harder and harder. The flash is great for snapshots for now, but you HAVE to learn how to manage ISO, shutter and aperture WITHOUT flash first. You are f*cking yourself over doing this.
Put your nifty fifty on, turn on every light in the house and bring them all into the room you are working in, pump up the ISO while you LEARN. those images aren't supposed to be the cherished ones of a lifetime. They are supposed to be LEARNING images. You have to learn one step before the other. That's how it works.

 

[tirediron]

What she said!! ^^^

 

[Robin Usagani]

harder and harder

What she said!! ^^^

Yup.. thats what she said.

 

[Kerbouchard]

I am sorry, but you are NOT going to get this by using that flash. You are just making it harder and harder. The flash is great for snapshots for now, but you HAVE to learn how to manage ISO, shutter and aperture WITHOUT flash first. You are f*cking yourself over doing this.
Put your nifty fifty on, turn on every light in the house and bring them all into the room you are working in, pump up the ISO while you LEARN. those images aren't supposed to be the cherished ones of a lifetime. They are supposed to be LEARNING images. You have to learn one step before the other. That's how it works.

I could not possibly disagree more.

I call shooting a moving kid indoors with a beginner DSLR, no flash, and a fast prime to be an excercize in futility. The only thing to learn from that experience is that there is a very good reason flashes were invented.

To the OP, check out the planet neil blog. Perhaps the best resource on bounce flash around. http://neilvn.com/tangents/ His home page also happens to have a very fitting article about this exact subject. For those that don't want to click on a link, here is an excerpt...

However, sometimes the quality and the quantity of available light is just not there. But there should not be an excuse for bad lighting. As a professional photographer, we need to have the ability to see, shape and create the light as needed. When the quality of available natural light is poor, there is no excuse for not bringing out and using our flashes.

And yes, I realize the OP is not a professional, but it is my understanding that she is attempting to achieve professional level results...

 

[Derrel]

Nothing wrong with wanting the learning curve to speed up. BUT. Any skill takes time to assimilate. You may get your head wrapped around the subject, and that's good, but until you get it to the point where you've internalized the process (ie, not thinking), you are still going to be "grinding gears". And the best way I know to get up the learning curve is to do lots and lots of practice (did I mention Lots of Practice?). MLeek's point is that if you jump around too much and don't get each element down more or less in turn, you'll delay the moment where things start to flow. What did mother say? take small bites, chew slowly and thoroughly, swallow, digest, and then continue. You've got a beautiful daughter, and obviously a supportive spouse. Good environment to make things happen.

Your focus seems to be pretty good. Since you got a flash now, try Kerbouchard's suggestions. If that doesn't work, remember that one of the key skills for any photographer is learning to use light. Small lights close to your subject (as in direct flash) give harsh highlights and shadows. Large surface lights (as in bouncing the flash onto a white surface) give much more pleasing gradual shadows. Try it both ways and see the difference.

pgriz has some excellent points,as he often does. I was thinking about your posts yesterday, trying to figure out what to reply...I let it go...I wanted to figure out a way to tell you, delicately, that I think you need to sloooow down...you took a thousand pictures??? You might as well have taken just 50 pictures, and looked at them more. It's not shooting volume you need, but TIME. Time to shoot, evaluate, analyze, and reflect. I honestly think many people in your position could benefit from a slower learning process that has LESS shooting, and more studying and reading on photographic theory and practices. Not sure exactly where to get that except through books, videos, and tutoring from more-experienced photogs. Your posts seem to follow a line of thinking that if you practice something really intensely, over a short time frame, that it will improve your skill level...but my experience is that photography is not like that...improvement comes with time, not through sheer shooting volume...if you keep making the same fundamental errors 1,000 times in one weekend, there's no improvement--just the same exact mistake made over and over. I can see from your posts that you are working very hard, but it seems as if you do not have a good teacher or more-experienced shooter to show you the "secret methods"...

 

[Vtec44]

Like others have said it, you're doing this the wrong way.

IMHO, focus is still very soft. On #3 and #4, it looks like you tried to artificially blur out the background. There's a sharp selection line on the right side of her, specifically around her hair.

It's possible that you're trying to get too close, beyond the minimum distance for the lens to be able to focus. Are you watching your focus indicator? It should be on and stay on before you take a shot.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

All these threads sound alike.

 

[shootermcgavin]

Bounce the light, you're fine! Try not to have harsh shadows, you want just enough shadow to show that it is 3 dimensional. It seems like a lot of your pictures are staged, I would bring the camera with you everywhere and take tons of photos, don't worry about settings or sharpness trial and error will fix those things. I think it's better to slowly learn and grasp the whole picture, then you will be better at predicting lighting situations. I've probably got 30,000 photos in the last year, the majority are snap shots but it helped me understand lighting situations in different places. I'm still learning the flash as it is far more annoying than just taking a picture and I don't feel comfortable setting off flash bursts everywhere I go. Keep having fun with it!

 

[gsgary]

To me they all still look soft but i think it is down to shutter speed 1/60 at 50mm is too slow because when there is ambient in the shot flash will not freeze movement

 

[vtf]

All these threads sound alike.

I believe you are ready for off camera flash with a new lens, not! You really need to take a few steps back.

 

[MTVision]

I am sorry, but you are NOT going to get this by using that flash. You are just making it harder and harder. The flash is great for snapshots for now, but you HAVE to learn how to manage ISO, shutter and aperture WITHOUT flash first. You are f*cking yourself over doing this.
Put your nifty fifty on, turn on every light in the house and bring them all into the room you are working in, pump up the ISO while you LEARN. those images aren't supposed to be the cherished ones of a lifetime. They are supposed to be LEARNING images. You have to learn one step before the other. That's how it works.

I agree 100%. I am always taking picture of my daughter indoors with no flash. I have a flash but I don't use it with her yet. I raise my ISO way above 800 if I have to. I live in this tiny ass condo and I have to windows in my downstairs and 1 in each bedroom - my place is DARK.

In the daytime I open the curtain and I can keep my ISO around 400 and still have a fast enough shutter speed. At night I've taken pictures at ISO 3200 and 6400. I'm still learning so I don't care if a lot of photos end up in the trash.

If its a birthday Or something important then I'll use the flash if I have to.