Me testing lighting and retouching

[thisdudenick]

Some background info about me. I'm a network engineer turned photographer :). I work 3 days a week and I'm seriously looking to make something out of photography. I purchased my first DSLR(Canon T1i) 2 months ago. I went to a popphoto photography seminar and I'm looking into taking classes.

I took this photo today. Please leave comments or any input that will help me take better photos

[lundgrenj]

Looks as if the focus point was her hair, instead of her eyes., need more contrast in the face I think.

[johnaengus]

Seems a little "flat" looking and her eyes are out of focus. Keep working on it!

[goforphoto]

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Image Date: 2009:11:09 14:24:44
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 55.0mm
CCD Width: 3.03mm
Exposure Time: 0.0050 s (1/200) I assume this is near sync speed for the lighting that was used?
Aperture: f/5.6 Stop down the lens for a wider depth of field, f8 is common for portraits and in this case would have helped in getting the eyes in focus.
ISO equiv: 200 Try to use minimum of 100 ISO when taking portraits this will capture more color information
White Balance: Manual
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

Get your lighting off the the side more and by all means diffuse the light or bounce it if you have to. In most cases direct flash really is hard to deal with.

[doublehmom]

I agree with above posts but it is still an awesome picture~you are doing good~not that I am an expert or anything~but you are doing awesome!!!

[ScottKCooper]

Keep clicking!