Pictures of my friends from uni. I am still learning though.

I recently took photos of my two new friends from my university. I seriously need to start working on getting these photos sharper. I have the 24-70mm lense and no matter how hard I try to get those photos sharp, they tend to be a bit blurry. I don't like sharpening much in photoshop especially if the photos are not that sharp then the sharpening in photoshop makes the photo look a bit too fake. Any tips on what I should do. I never use flash outside because I like getting the glow in the eyes My friend with the black hair has beautiful green/blue eyes. I need to make them stand out. I will practise till I get it right. O and I have the canon 500d since my canon 50d does not work :/ Both picture qualities are thisame so that's a good start. And on Monday I am taking photos of my friend in the blonde hair indoors. I am really worried because I always use flash indoors and I want to try not using flash at all. Because using my flash makes the eyes look normal, but without flash I get the perfect glow :/

I like 1 , 2 & 3.
what camera are you using ?

I am currently using my canon 500D and my 24-70mm lense

Are you using the 24-70 at 2.8 mostly? If you stop it down a bit, even to 3.2, it'll be a little sharper. You look as though you are shooting in plenty of light, so it shouldn't be motion blur... I like number three, but it seems like the sharpest point is on her jacket buttons, so the focus may have just been off by the slightest bit? It doesn't really appear blurry though, and I quite fancy the image.

#4 is awesome!

1 and 2 look like they were shot in the middle of the day. I would try to shoot in the morning or in the evening and have them look towards the sun because their faces are currently the darkest portions in the pics.