looking for help for tomorrow!

[GlowingAmber]

Hey out there! I'm doing some shoots for friends this weekend. I had a little trouble with blur today, and I'm researching that tonight so maybe it wont happen tomorrow. i can take 10 pics of the same pose, and maybe 2 will be crisp. also, even when i use the center AF point on an eye of a child, the eyes still dont "pop". i would use a tripod, but thats tough with kids! maybe for the family shoots though?
My big question for tomorrow is...my friend is gonna want a shot of her kids walking holding hands. i tried it today and it was terrible. the motion was all blurry in P, AV, and sports mode. i have a canon xsi, using either the kit 18-55 lens or my 50mm. 1pm, but in the woods. not comfy using total manual, but i like AV and P.
Any advice for me? Thank you!! :mrgreen:

 

[kathyt]

Are you the same one just asking about how much to charge customers in another thread and you have yet to master the basic skills? I would not be asking for any money from anyone at this point, and I would start focusing on one thing at a time. I know this sounds harsh, but that is not fair to these families. I would still shoot these session for your own practice and skill building, but I would not accept any money at all. I would also have a solid contract in place, as well as, a model release. To answer your question above regarding the holding hands picture, most likely your shutter speed was not fast enough to "stop" the motion, and that is why your images are blurred. Along with some other things. Think about the exposure triangle. (iso, ss, aperture) If I were you I would post a couple of examples of the images you took that were blurry, include your settings, and we will see what we can do to help you along.

 

[pixmedic]

Not trying to completely discourage you from doing this.. (only mostly) but at some point here you have to weigh making that little bit of money against your "clients" getting poor pictures. If you want to be a real photographer, and not just one of the facebook fauxtogs the forum likes to point and laugh at, then you have to genuinely care about your final product, and care enough NOT to put yourself out there as a "pro" (meaning you get paid) until you can consistently produce a quality product for clients, and have your business legally in order. If that isnt something you are willing to do... You may find real help or respect on the forum hard to come by. And with fair reason. Those here that care to help you, do so because they want to see you grow and have success as a photographer, NOT be someone selling crappy snapshots on facebook for peanuts and not caring what their clients get whether the clients know better or not. Hope this helps. And in all honestly, good luck with your shoot. Remember, fast shutter speed freezes motion. Try shutter priority for moving objects, aperture priority for the rest. Tripod whenever you can.

 

[Tee]

What f/ stop were you using in AV mode when practicing? What shutter speed? ISO? Give us your settings and we can help you out.

 

[Derrel]

BOOST THE ISO up to 500 or 640.

 

[GlowingAmber]

Are you the same one just asking about how much to charge customers in another thread and you have yet to master the basic skills? I would not be asking for any money from anyone at this point, and I would start focusing on one thing at a time. I know this sounds harsh, but that is not fair to these families. I would still shoot these session for your own practice and skill building, but I would not accept any money at all. I would also have a solid contract in place, as well as, a model release. To answer your question above regarding the holding hands picture, most likely your shutter speed was not fast enough to "stop" the motion, and that is why your images are blurred. Along with some other things. Think about the exposure triangle. (iso, ss, aperture) If I were you I would post a couple of examples of the images you took that were blurry, include your settings, and we will see what we can do to help you along.

Yep, thats me. Didnt think y'all would find me over here LOL! These families are the ones asking me to take pictures. They like what they see on facebook, and contacted me. I cant do it for free, right now, i have 3 small boys, and my hubby cant always be babysitting for me. Its a good opportunity to make a little bit of christmas cash. The family today was very pleased with what they saw on my camera. they are friends of mine. i dont feel im ripping anyone off, they enjoy my work...they've seen it! theres nothing wrong with that. they know theyre not getting a pro, cause they're only paying 50 bucks! Now i dont want to have to defend myself in this thread too! Thank you for the help. though i already deleted the bad photos

 

[kathyt]

Are you the same one just asking about how much to charge customers in another thread and you have yet to master the basic skills? I would not be asking for any money from anyone at this point, and I would start focusing on one thing at a time. I know this sounds harsh, but that is not fair to these families. I would still shoot these session for your own practice and skill building, but I would not accept any money at all. I would also have a solid contract in place, as well as, a model release. To answer your question above regarding the holding hands picture, most likely your shutter speed was not fast enough to "stop" the motion, and that is why your images are blurred. Along with some other things. Think about the exposure triangle. (iso, ss, aperture) If I were you I would post a couple of examples of the images you took that were blurry, include your settings, and we will see what we can do to help you along.

Yep, thats me. Didnt think y'all would find me over here LOL! These families are the ones asking me to take pictures. They like what they see on facebook, and contacted me. I cant do it for free, right now, i have 3 small boys, and my hubby cant always be babysitting for me. Its a good opportunity to make a little bit of christmas cash. The family today was very pleased with what they saw on my camera. they are friends of mine. i dont feel im ripping anyone off, they enjoy my work...they've seen it! theres nothing wrong with that. they know theyre not getting a pro, cause they're only paying 50 bucks! Now i dont want to have to defend myself in this thread too! Thank you for the help. though i already deleted the bad photos

Do as you please. We are only trying to stear you in the right direction so you avoid the IRS and all of the other issues that come along with operating a "business" w/o the proper things in place. So, I guess just up your iso and shutter speed and let her rip! A few things you just wrote put a bad taste in my mouth. No client of mine would EVER see a image on the back of my camera. As a matter of fact, they would never even see any unedited images. It is just very unprofessional. One final question, since when do husbands babysit?

 

[GlowingAmber]

Are you the same one just asking about how much to charge customers in another thread and you have yet to master the basic skills? I would not be asking for any money from anyone at this point, and I would start focusing on one thing at a time. I know this sounds harsh, but that is not fair to these families. I would still shoot these session for your own practice and skill building, but I would not accept any money at all. I would also have a solid contract in place, as well as, a model release. To answer your question above regarding the holding hands picture, most likely your shutter speed was not fast enough to "stop" the motion, and that is why your images are blurred. Along with some other things. Think about the exposure triangle. (iso, ss, aperture) If I were you I would post a couple of examples of the images you took that were blurry, include your settings, and we will see what we can do to help you along.

Yep, thats me. Didnt think y'all would find me over here LOL! These families are the ones asking me to take pictures. They like what they see on facebook, and contacted me. I cant do it for free, right now, i have 3 small boys, and my hubby cant always be babysitting for me. Its a good opportunity to make a little bit of christmas cash. The family today was very pleased with what they saw on my camera. they are friends of mine. i dont feel im ripping anyone off, they enjoy my work...they've seen it! theres nothing wrong with that. they know theyre not getting a pro, cause they're only paying 50 bucks! Now i dont want to have to defend myself in this thread too! Thank you for the help. though i already deleted the bad photos

Do as you please. We are only trying to stear you in the right direction so you avoid the IRS and all of the other issues that come along with operating a "business" w/o the proper things in place. So, I guess just up your iso and shutter speed and let her rip! A few things you just wrote put a bad taste in my mouth. No client of mine would EVER see a image on the back of my camera. As a matter of fact, they would never even see any unedited images. It is just very unprofessional. One final question, since when do husbands babysit?

thank you for the advice. again, she is my friend, needing someone to take a christmas card photo. i wouldnt let just anyone see my camera. i would rather do that for her, and make sure she was happy, rather than leave the location and her not be happy with the result. my husband babysits a lot, thankfully. he even lets me play softball

 

[Pallycow]

If she is your friend, do it for free. take your kids along or have a friend watch. Sure it's only 50 bucks but it's the principle of it. Whatever you do, don't use your babysitting and kids as an excuse. lol

Honestly, all jokes aside, I'd just shoot it for free for practice and portfolio usage.

 

[ewick]

OP what you say and are doing is fine and dandy but don't be fooled by friends and family cause they are there mostly for encouragement and support. Get a lot of practice before you start charging...even if it's just 50 bucks cause even if they are friends your still ripping the off by not knowing your craft. Why in the world would they pay you or anybody any money for something they can do themselves? We as pros/amateurs receive money for knowing how to use our cameras and incorporating creativity, composition and use of light.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Hey out there! I'm doing some shoots for friends this weekend. I had a little trouble with blur today, and I'm researching that tonight so maybe it wont happen tomorrow. i can take 10 pics of the same pose, and maybe 2 will be crisp. also, even when i use the center AF point on an eye of a child, the eyes still dont "pop". i would use a tripod, but thats tough with kids! maybe for the family shoots though?
My big question for tomorrow is...my friend is gonna want a shot of her kids walking holding hands. i tried it today and it was terrible. the motion was all blurry in P, AV, and sports mode. i have a canon xsi, using either the kit 18-55 lens or my 50mm. 1pm, but in the woods. not comfy using total manual, but i like AV and P.
Any advice for me? Thank you!! :mrgreen:

 

[GlowingAmber]

i'll be leaving this thread now, thanks for those trying to help. i've heard enough.

 

[pixmedic]

i'll be leaving this thread now, thanks for those trying to help. i've heard enough.

just try to remember when you go shooting today..fast shutter speed for moving objects. tripod whenever possible. you can probably use aperture priority for everything else. dont go down to f/1.8 on the 50mm unless its dark, that lens is sharper at f/2.8-f/5.6 if you have decent light.
get a flash! hot shoe flash is your friend. popup flash is NOT!

Good luck with everything, hope you will post some photos later so we can see how you did.

 

[greybeard35 7]

From what I can see today, there are people selling photos at all kinds of different levels of proficiencies and as long as a client knows what they are buying, I don't really see anything wrong with it. If you pictures have motion blur, the only thing you can do is increase the shutter speed. When you increase the shutter speed you have to do one of 2 things to compensate for it. 1 open up the lens 1 stop ( like going from f/5.6 to f/4.0) for every time you double your shutter speed (like going from 1/30 to 1/60 or from 1/100 to 1/200) or double your ISO (like ISO 100 to ISO 200) for every time you double your shutter speed.

 

[GlowingAmber]

thank you so much pixmedic and greybeard! i did much better today thanks to your tips!