New camera + my 7-1/2 mo old (C&C welcome)

[LadyPockets]

I just bought my first DSLR, so I grabbed my little man and went outside to practice. How did I do?


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The pictures were taken on 2 different days, both right around the 6-7pm mark. Olympus E-420 with 14-42mm kit lens.

PS....ignore the funky frame/watermark. I only put those on the pics I upload to my Facebook page.

 

[tirediron]

They're not bad, but they all need some fill light; try something like a large piece of white posterboard or coroplast to use as reflector, and read your camera's manual to learn more about using the built-in flash, especially in manual mode.

 

[LadyPockets]

Thanks!! That's what I was thinking too. I did buy a reflector, just hadn't arrived yet. So I'll get to spend some time playing with it this weekend. I also spent some quality time with the manual and the flash settings last night and got some good indoor shots of him playing without blowing them out with the flash or creating some harsh flash shadows.

 

[jowensphoto]

They're not bad, and tirediron gave you some great suggestions.

I'd suggest losing the boarder, it really doesn't add to the photo.

 

[allison_dcp]

How are you shooting? I recently go my 1st Digital SLR and went straight to manual mode and have never looked back! It takes awhile, and I'm still learning, to figure out how to do it though. Can you add fill flash with your editing software? it would really help with 4 and 5. I think #2 is my favorite, watch out for head and knee chops though! (I battle with this problem).
Have you considered getting a 50mm lens? I skipped the kit lens, and got a 50mm for around 100 bucks and its awesome!

 

[LadyPockets]

Thanks! I only added the boarder when I uploaded them to Facebook. I was at work when I posted these, so the unadorned ones were at home. Those are the ones I print, vs. ones I hope to discourage people from copying or printing.

Allison, I have an Olympus E-420. A 50mm prime is on my list to purchase next. Along with a different flash. I use PSE9 to edit and I'm still playing with adding in light without blowing out the whole thing. They aren't the best composed, but I was paying more attention to his expressions on some than the shot I was taking, but these were still the best from that shoot. I spent some time tonight with the reflector and just uploaded those to the computer so we'll see how they turn out. He wasn't posing for me, more interested in the grass and his hands, but I was really just trying to get better lighting.

 

[LadyPockets]

Here are the results of using a reflector at 7pm. He was not paying attention to me so my focus isn't perfect but I was more working on getting the light right. I shoot in RAW and just tweaked the WB and contrast in PSE9.

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