Take a look at my first few 10D pics...

[sigler]

Hi folks,

This is a great forum...thanks for all of the advice!

Here are my first few 10d pics (all of people). Please give me some feedback. I guess my one complaint is that sometimes the subject looks washed out...like the baby in pic#8, and the girl in pic#14.

http://homepage.mac.com/rsigler/PhotoAlbum81.html

How can I fix this...(please be kind...I'm a former Point-and-Shooter, and I'm just starting to learn this puppy.)

BTW, I used the Canon 28-135 lens (that everybody and their brother seems to own)

Thanks!

Rob Sigler

[Francis]

Hi Rob,

I'm by no mean expert and my english is not very good, but I think some of your portraits have too much contrast (part of the photo is in sunlight) for what digital can take. For this time it will be pretty much difficult to salvage them but next time try to pose your subject(s) in open shade under a tree or a porch and don't let any patch of sunlight hit any of your subject(s). This will bring contrast to a more tolerable level for your camera. For this time you can try to select the highlights trough a procedure called "the claw" and darken them a bit through levels or send the highlight selection to a new layer and set the blending mode to darken the highlights. If your images are raw files you could convert two files with different exposure, put them one over the other in photoshop and paint the darker on the highlight portion of the lighter (on th layer mask). In fact there are many ways to try to improve this in photoshop but nothing will be better or faster than getting it right from the first time by reducing the contrast of your images
Hope this helps
Francis

[Griffin]

Humm, from my uncaliburated monitor, I see no "wash-out" problem here. I am not sure about your camera settings but under harsh lights, objects with strong contrasts tend to "blow out" in most cases. It is very dificult to get it right, especially using evaluated mode. Using flash and/or reflector may help.

My $.02.


Griffin.

[runic]

Contrast issues aside, most of those shots are horribly soft. It's probably not anything you've done wrong, and if that were my camera I would worry that I had one of the 10D's with focus problems. Unless you've deliberately gone for a soft focus look for your portraits (using a filter or post-processing etc) I would seriously consider asking the store to replace your 10d or return it to Canon for calibration.

I don't post this to knock your photography skills - I think you've composed the shots rather well on the whole, but appear to have been let down by the camera's autofocus (the contrast problems on some shots aren't the fault of the camera, you need to use supplemental lighting, such as fill flash).

This worries me, as I'm very close to buying a 10d myself to replace my G2, but these sort of soft results which I see all to frequently from the 10d are of immense concern.

Regards
Martin

[Griffin]

runic wrote:
This worries me, as I'm very close to buying a 10d myself to replace my G2, but these sort of soft results which I see all to frequently from the 10d are of immense concern.

Martin,

I have two friends who have 10D but both suffer none of the focusing problems I read about. See also Pekka's thread on this issue.
( http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10526 )

For sharpness there are a number of factors including but not limiting to: camera handlings, camera setting and the lens used. One side note is: many EOS D users I know do not postprocess their photographs which I strongly suggest, according to both Pekka and Michael Reichmann, that it is a must for digital photograhs.

Good luck with your 10D, also. I am planning to get mine around Aug 10, this year.


Griffin.

[scottbergerphoto]

It's hard to evaluate these shots without knowing how they were shot. What files were you saving? Are these JPEG or converted Raws. They don't look out of focus. They look soft and also artificial. What size file did you convert to to post to the web?

[sigler]

Hi,

Thanks for the criticism...I altered the photos a bit (some obviously a lot) with Mystical Tint-Tone-Color. I seem to have gone a bit overboard with the soft look.

They were shot in jpg, not raw.

[runic]

sigler wrote:
Hi,

Thanks for the criticism...I altered the photos a bit (some obviously a lot) with Mystical Tint-Tone-Color. I seem to have gone a bit overboard with the soft look.

Ahhh :)

Probably worth mentioning any significant post-processing when you ask for feedback, as some people out there (like me) wonder if it's the camera producing the softness.

Whether you went overboard or not is a matter of personal taste. Personally I don't like too much softness in portraits, but I know plenty of people who do.

As long as it isn't the camera producing that effect, all is fine. The contrast problems can be solved with fill flash, or using some reflectors to light up the subjects' faces.

Cheers
Martin

[scottbergerphoto]

Two comments:
1. Unprocessed digital images are all soft and have to be sharpened. When you look at a JPEG out of the camera, it has already been sharpened by the in-camera software. You may want to do some additional sharpening to taste. Some people prefer to do this on their own in Photoshop or other post-processing software. I now shoot raw, convert in BreezeBrowser, and then post process (adjust levels,crop, and sharpen) in Photoshop Elements 2.0.

2. Your images look like some kind of auto-levels correction was done for brightness and contrast. This clips the histogram of highs and lows and can produce images like this. If you haven't done so, try using the histogram to adjust high, low and medium points and see if your picture looks more realistic. I've taken lots of shots on bright sunny days and they don't look like this.

[rdenney]

scottbergerphoto wrote:
Two comments:
2. Your images look like some kind of auto-levels correction was done for brightness and contrast. This clips the histogram of highs and lows and can produce images like this. If you haven't done so, try using the histogram to adjust high, low and medium points and see if your picture looks more realistic. I've taken lots of shots on bright sunny days and they don't look like this.

If you use Curves instead of Levels, then you will never clip your histogram unless you move the endpoints. I have gotten to the point where I only use levels to clip off completely unused portions of the histogram, and then I do everything else with curves.

Rick "who wishes PS had a histogram display on the Curve dialog" Denney

[Yavor75]

The basic issue to understand here is that -contrary from your understanding of old chemical photography- your best shots will not be in full sunlight. Digital hates harsh light- because it has a more limited contrast range than film. If you force it to show pure black and pure white areas in a full sunlight shot, your image will loose shadow detail and look harsh.
Your best digital shots will be in a mixture of natural diffuse light -filled with flash. You want to even out the light across the frame. Lighting is ALWAYS your primary concern in photography. Set the shot's lighting up first- then composition. I'd use a 550ex flash ALL the time..I do. Here are my tips for getting great photos:

Use a 550ex to fill in your shots outside
Shoot at 200 asa or 400asa to raise the F stop
Shoot in Fine/Large
Bring the image into Photoshop and do the following:-
CTRL-L to bring up levels menu
Adjust the upper slider downwards if there is any blank area at the top/right (stop it where data starts)
Now move the center slider slightly left to reveal midrange detail... then- Add a little contrast if needed.
Now- is the color OK? If not, with the Levels menu open- use the middle dropper and select a grey area of the picture....keep clicking until the color balance looks good.
Finally- Close Levels- and select Filters-Unsharpening mask. Use Level 100-250%, radius .3 and threshold 0
For fairly clear shots, you might use 125%. If the shot is not focused, up the radius to 1.3 and adjust the amount again. DOn't over-sharpen..err on the light side.

That's it. Also, to print, buy and use Qimage..it is the item. You can't match it's output.

Have fun!
Bob

[sigler]

Thanks Bob...these are great suggestions!

Rob Sigler