open mic night photoshoot

[D_CeLiRaToR]

my sister held an open mic at barnes and noble last week and asked me to take some pictures. my set-up was a canon rebel xt, switching between a 50 1.8 and 28-105mm 3.5-4.5USM(my longest lens), and a 430ex with homemade flash diffuser for fill. i shot in raw and just added a little sharpening in dpp. they aren't as sharp as some of the shots i've seen on here and i would like to know how to get to that level. do i just need better glass? here are some of the pics:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5933/barnesandnobleopenmic01zg5.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/4315/barnesandnobleopenmic02bp8.jpg

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/108/barnesandnobleopenmic04jk0.jpg

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9117/barnesandnobleopenmic05sf4.jpg

[joedlh]

In #1 and #2, it looks like your lens was focusing on the sweaters. Use selective focus or close down the F stops.

In #3 and #4, it looks like the dark sweaters fooled your flash to output too much light (trying to make the black neutral gray), thereby overexposing the lighter skin. Try dialing down the flash exposure by 1/3-2/3 stops. If they were wearing white sweaters overexpose the flash by the same amount.

[Robert_Lay]

I like #3 and only #3.
All of the other 3 are spoiled by the background.

[D_CeLiRaToR]

thanks for the c&c i will give those a try next time. as for the background in them it was at a bookstore so any angle i could use had a busy background. i tried to throw it OOF as much as possible but even at f1.8 i couldn't get it to blur that much. they were very close to the back wall. any other c&c is appreciated.