Learned my lesson...

[DavidTO]

Well, I have to come out and admit it...

when shooting with a flash, I am exceedingly lazy. I put the camera on program mode and shoot away.

Bad idea, for the most part. I was shooting my cousin's daughter's (what does that make her to me?) birthday yesterday.

Anyway, I ended up with a lot of soft shots, since when you set the camera like that you get a shutter speed of 1/60. And let me tell you, those kids are moving fast.

So, as a cautionary tale, for all you learning photophiles out there, in a situation like that set your camera (20D, in my case) to shutter priority, and make sure that you are working at a fast enough shutter to keep the images from getting soft. Then the flash is just fill, not being depended on for the entire exposure.

Here's an example of a shot that could have been great, but I flubbed it:

http://davidrosenthal.smugmug.com/photos/23315217-M.jpg

It looks like he's posing, but let me tell you, he was in that position for a split second. They were moving fast.

and believe me, there are much worse that I didn't even bother to process.

[GREAPER]

Just another note on using shutter priority. (yes, learned the hard way). Check your camera's max sync speed. If you set the shutter higher than that you will have underexposed bars where the shutter is blocking part of the frame when the flash goes off.

[wxwax]

David old boy, I reckon that's an excellent shot. :thumb

[gus]

Just another note on using shutter priority. (yes, learned the hard way). Check your camera's max sync speed. If you set the shutter higher than that you will have underexposed bars where the shutter is blocking part of the frame when the flash goes off.
:scratch .................................................. ......................:thumb

So thats what that causes that. I got it quite a bit on the week-end.

[bfjr]

Is there something wrong with my Monitor ?? :dunno
I think this shot is great :thumb
go right for the eyes and their crisp, skin a bit bright but he's young and it fits with the overall look.

What's wrong with me :dunno :D

[DavidTO]

Is there something wrong with my Monitor ?? :dunno
I think this shot is great :thumb
go right for the eyes and their crisp, skin a bit bright but he's young and it fits with the overall look.

What's wrong with me :dunno :D

That's heavy sharpening (Smart Sharpen) and the small size hides the problems. Trust me, it was very soft. And there were others that were much worse.

[DavidTO]

David old boy, I reckon that's an excellent shot. :thumb

Thanks, Sid ol' chum. Woulda been, not it's just OK. Well, we'll see how it holds up in print...

[ginger_55]

I don't have a dime to my name right now, but I gotta get that sharpening thing ASAP.

What is it? Where do I get it?

If Andy says, "OOF", does it sharpen? I got a very clear bird, Osprey shot up, but there have been some I would have died to save. They were not that bad, but you people here "look" at everything, and all it takes is a bit of a soft photo in a set, and the whole set goes sour. That is MHO.

So, again, what is this miracle worker? Please?

Very good photo.

Smile, ginger

[DavidTO]

I don't have a dime to my name right now, but I gotta get that sharpening thing ASAP.

What is it? Where do I get it?

If Andy says, "OOF", does it sharpen? I got a very clear bird, Osprey shot up, but there have been some I would have died to save. They were not that bad, but you people here "look" at everything, and all it takes is a bit of a soft photo in a set, and the whole set goes sour. That is MHO.

So, again, what is this miracle worker? Please?

Very good photo.

Smile, ginger

It's part of CS2.

[MuskyDude]

David, you can chaulk this one up to another one of those "I think it sucks" but others see something right away shots. :dunno In this case, to me it's the subjects eyes. Immediately your drawn into them, there's a definate quality to them that makes this a very effective shot. Maybe not great in yours, but effective in other's. Mitusense.


AJ

[Netgarden]

I agree! I wish my bad shots looked like that! Love the eyes and color too.
Thanks for the info.:thumb


David, you can chaulk this one up to another one of those "I think it sucks" but others see something right away shots. :dunno In this case, to me it's the subjects eyes. Immediately your drawn into them, there's a definate quality to them that makes this a very effective shot. Maybe not great in yours, but effective in other's. Mitusense.


AJ

[Angelo]

I was shooting my cousin's daughter's (what does that make her to me?) birthday yesterday.
assuming you're speaking of your first cousin, the child is; your first cousin, once removed. That child and your children are second cousins.

[Angelo]

Here's an example of a shot that could have been great, but I flubbed it:

http://davidrosenthal.smugmug.com/photos/23315217-M.jpg

I don't know... I think it's a very nice shot!

[Steve Cavigliano]

I don't have a dime to my name right now, but I gotta get that sharpening thing ASAP.

What is it? Where do I get it?

If Andy says, "OOF", does it sharpen? I got a very clear bird, Osprey shot up, but there have been some I would have died to save. They were not that bad, but you people here "look" at everything, and all it takes is a bit of a soft photo in a set, and the whole set goes sour. That is MHO.

So, again, what is this miracle worker? Please?

Very good photo.

Smile, ginger
Ginger,
There aren't any free lunches and there are no miracle working software programs. If a shot is soft, some 3rd party softwares can make it better. If the shot is OOF, it's OOF forever :dunno Don't waste your valuable $ thinking that there's software out there that will fix this problem. Also, as David mentions, these sharpening softwares also take a toll on the image. Shrunk down to small sizes it won't be as noticeable, but it won't look good at, say, an 8X10 print size.

Try downloading Focus Magic here (http://www.focusmagic.com/) You get 10 free saves, then you'll have to buy it if you want to keep it. Use it on some of your soft images and see if you like the results. Personally, I think most of these types of sw leave the image looking blocky and noisy. That's why they can look decent at small sizes, but awful for medium to large prints.

Steve