What am I doing wrong???

[mpreston]

I always shoot in Aperture priority and usually on a bright day with my iso at 100, and my aperture about 2.5 to 6.0. My shoot will be going fine and then I will get a shot that looks like this...Zenfolio | Cherry Lane Photography | Front Page | Photo 46
What am I doing wrong??? and how can I fix it?

 

[ronlane]

IMHO, I think you may have your aperture open too much. Try something like f/8.

 

[KmH]

What metering mode are you using?

With subjects that close to the background Ron is right, using f/2.5 to f/6 doesn't make a lot of sense if selective focus (a shallow DoF) is why you're using such wide lens apertures.

 

[texkam]

how can I fix it?

Learn to shoot in manual mode and how to use your light meter. For static portraits it shouldn't be that difficult to dial in the exposure pretty doggone close. If need be, fire off a quick set up shot, chimp and adjust accordingly. I assume you shoot raw?

 

[chasmatt]

What metering are you using? With the background in this photo, you probably should have spot metered on a flesh tone. or used a grey card to set the exposure.

 

[pgriz]

What do YOU think is wrong with the photo?

 

[tirediron]

How about posting one from the set which you feel turned out well so that we can compare?

 

[ronlane]

What metering mode are you using?

With subjects that close to the background Ron is right, using f/2.5 to f/6 doesn't make a lot of sense if selective focus (a shallow DoF) is why you're using such wide lens apertures.

Keith, even with the family moved away from the background, wouldn't you still have a tough time getting the entire family tack sharp using f/2.5 just because of the number of people and the shallow DOF?

 

[Dao]

I believe the issue is how you meter the scene. With this setup, I will spot meter the face of one subject and lock the exposure.

The photo was shot at f/5.6 with shutter speed of 1/20 and ISO 100 at 50mm focal length. So DoF is fine. But I will bump the ISO to increase the shutter speed to avoid camera shake.

 

[KmH]

What metering mode are you using?

With subjects that close to the background Ron is right, using f/2.5 to f/6 doesn't make a lot of sense if selective focus (a shallow DoF) is why you're using such wide lens apertures.

Keith, even with the family moved away from the background, wouldn't you still have a tough time getting the entire family tack sharp using f/2.5 just because of the number of people and the shallow DOF?

Point of focus (PoF) distance has more of an affect on DoF than lens aperture does.

In that photo, the point of focus distance is such that it looks that the DoF isn't so shallow to be an issue for focus on the people.

Using a Nikon D3000 @f/5.6 and a PoF distance of 12 feet, the total DoF is 4 feet, and at 15 feet the total DoF expands to 6.5 feet.
Using f/2.5, at 15 feet the total DoF is almost 3 feet.

No doubt, 1/20 is to slow a shutter speed for controlling camera shake and the slight movements portrait subjects make. For portraiture I didn't use less than 1/100 for my shutter speed.

But the bigger issue with the image is the over exposure of the subjects.
The D3000 has 3 light metering modes - Evaluative, Center-Weighted, and Spot - page 74 of the D3000 users manual.

I suspect the OP has a lot yet to learn about metering modes, and depth-of-field.
The D3000 has 3 light metering modes - Evaluative, Center-Weighted, and Spot - page 74 of the D3000 users manual.
Understanding Camera Metering and Exposure
Understanding Depth of Field in Photography