Trying REALLY hard w/Lighting c&c

[sburatorul]

they are both great pictures. i don't mind the soft chin or the cold colors in the first. i think they work fine. nice use of lights

 

[linpelk]

Keep in mind, too, that ALL digital pictures need to be sharpened to some degree (unless you want a soft effect)... there is an anti-aliasing filter (a physical device) over the sensor of nearly every digital camera that is there to help make an analog scene translate to digital without stepping and other artifacts that would normally be the result. This softens them. You want to correct that in post processing for most scenes. This is oversimplifying things a bit, but hopefully gives you a starting point.

Seriously? I have seriously been beating myself up for not getting sharp focused pics after a shoot and zooming in 100% on the RAW images. I have gone back to reshoot and shot dozens of the same frame in many combos of F/stops, and even different lenses, only to be dissappointed again and again. Is this really true?


Ok, back to the critique...
That first shot is truly beautiful. What a great pose. I can only agree with other posts about warming it up a bit.

The second pic isn't wow'ing me like the first but it looks nice.
I commend you on the flash. Was it the on board flash? I have yet to use my flash at all. It makes me nervous.

Great job!

The sharpening info. was new to me also. I have felt the same disappointment in SO many of my pictures because they just felt slightly out of focus and to me, even a SLIGHTLY out of focus picture is crap! But, I've gone back and sharpened a few and it REALLY made a huge difference. DUH!!!!!

Thanks for the comments on the pictures. I was using my Speedlite for these flash shots. I just got it last month so I'm still learning how to use it. I had it turned away from my girls and was bouncing it off of a sheet in pic #1 and a reflector on pic #2.

 

[linpelk]

Thanks again for everyone's input!!

 

[manaheim]

Keep in mind, too, that ALL digital pictures need to be sharpened to some degree (unless you want a soft effect)... there is an anti-aliasing filter (a physical device) over the sensor of nearly every digital camera that is there to help make an analog scene translate to digital without stepping and other artifacts that would normally be the result. This softens them. You want to correct that in post processing for most scenes. This is oversimplifying things a bit, but hopefully gives you a starting point.

Seriously? I have seriously been beating myself up for not getting sharp focused pics after a shoot and zooming in 100% on the RAW images. I have gone back to reshoot and shot dozens of the same frame in many combos of F/stops, and even different lenses, only to be dissappointed again and again. Is this really true?

Sorry, bitter... somehow I missed your query.

Yes, this is absolutely true and something that surprisingly isn't talked about very much. In fact, I just did a quick search to try to find the external reference source I had discovered that enlightened me... and couldn't. Should have bookmarked that.

There is literally a clear film over your sensor that "fuzzes" the image slightly. Without this, you would get stepping/moire patterns in your image because there would be such a harsh change from what each picture sees.

It's interesting because the strength of this filter is pretty variable... on some cameras like the D70S the pictures are INCREDIBLY sharp right off the camera... because people had complained about them being too soft on the D100... so they used a less aggressive filter. Then people started complaining about moire patterns. Can't win.

In theory, if you had as many "pixels" in the image as your eye could see, this wouldn't be a problem... but eyes don't work the same way digital cameras do. Film is actually a much better representation of the way we see... at least from a "resolution" perspective... both film and our eyes are analog... well, sorta.