news and 6 month old pics for CC

[stephras07]

Well its been quite a while since I've gotten on here, much less posted anything. This little guy is the reason:

Our little man Christopher, born March 26 in Okinawa Japan. We now have 2 kiddos under the age of 2. Somewhere I think the fine print says we are having fun lol. Seriously though, I couldn't be happier - these kids are my life Now for my latest pics for CC...


I've really been working on focus and lighting, and I've learned a few new tricks with PS Elements. Hubby says my birthday present will be a new computer to edit on, since I'm currently using a 13 inch macbook. Can't wait to get that 21 inch iMac!!!
1

2

3

4

These last two were before I learned some tricks for smoothing out the background, and also with an older watermark that I was entering manually on each picture - I since learned how to make my watermark as a brush action (gotta love youtube tutorials, right?).
5

6

 

[MissCream]

Congrats!!

Sorry to say the pictures are all either out of focus or there is motion blur...

 

[Big Mike]

Cute Kid.

Most of the shots are blurry. I think it's result of missed focus and slow shutter speed. I checked the EXIF data on a few of them, and they were shot at 1/50 or 1/60...which may be fast enough to get a sharp shot of someone who is sitting still....but when it comes to kids, they don't really sit still, do they?

 

[stephras07]

Ok what am I doing wrong on focus then? I played with manual vs auto, and ended up having to use auto because he was moving. I had the shutter speed set that way because of lighting - if I made it faster, then things were over exposed with the flash, or underexposed without. I know that I need to get a faster lens, all I'm using are the kit lenses right now. (Open for suggestions on a good lens!). I do have it set to focus on the center point, and kept that between his eyes, but what else can I do here? Motion blur can't be avoided with kids, I know, but I would like to know why the focus is STILL off.

 

[mrpink]

Motion blur can't be avoided with kids, I know.

Why is that?

Any shutter speed faster than 1/125th will freeze normal motion- be it a child or adult.

I am wondering what "photoshop tricks" were used on #3??






p!nK

 

[SoonerBJJ]

I would set the focus on one of the eyes. Use shutter priority with a minimum speed 1/125. If you're already having issues with exposure then this will probably have you wide open or close to it, thus making focus all the more critical with the shallow DOF. If you don't want the motion artifact you're going to have to find a way to make 125 or faster, whether by lens or lighting.

Your light isn't very flattering for skin tones and the black background has no depth on my monitor and is thus distracting. Also appear oversharped, as if trying to make up for OOF with sharpening. That doesn't work BTW.

 

[Vtec44]

Wait if the shutter speed is faster and everything else is equal, wouldn't it be under exposed because of not enough light going into the sensor? I think you need more light.