Need some help please! :)

I am new so I hope I'm posting in the right place. For the past year I've been really getting to know all about photography and I am extremely fascinated (yet a little overwhelmed) by how much there is to learn. I am getting a little frustrated though. When in manual I am not getting the images I want. Here are some examples and I would love some honesty so that I can improve and learn what I am doing wrong. I have a canon rebel t3i. The first picture was taken during the day but in the shade. F/4 exp 1/500 iso 400 focal length 60 mm. The second was taken with a new lens I just got-50mm f1.4--I'm still trying to figure that out. F/1.8 1/4000 iso 400. I post processed in lightroom with both pictures. The first picture looks to dark and the second looks to orange. I need help!

http://www.flickr.com …/84263586@N06/7​712583702/

http://www.flickr.com …/84263586@N06/7​712582742/

#1 might be a small 'tad' underexposed, but others might even disagree. Focus is there and the white balance doesn't look bad on my monitor. Maybe could use warmed up (higher K number like, 4800 or so.) a bit.

#2 is ok as well. Don't think I would have chosen f/1.8 for a pic of the youngster. f/4 probably would have been fine and provided a bit deeper focus plane to work with.

Couple of tips that helped me when first learning the "M" spot on the dial. Step 1: set depth of field (f-stop) to render in focus what you want in focus; Step 2: Set a shutter speed at which you are comfortable shooting; Step 3: Set ISO setting until you have proper exposure. Step 4: Shoot. Step 4: Make minor adjustments like +/- exposure compensation. This would have worked great for #1 image if you think it was too dark.

Tip 2: Just because your lens opens to f/1.8 doesn't mean it's always a good choice to shoot wide open. There's a huge contingent of folk here that choose to shoot wide-open all time. Call me crazy, but it rarely makes sense to me to shoot at f/1.2 or f/1.4.

Welcome to the fun. You'll learn so much here.

Last tip: Look into a site like Flickr so you can upload your shots there and post images direct here. Some folks take issue with clicking on links for security reasons.

dave

You could use the exposure brush to pull up the face on one and how are you setting WB? Welcome to the nightmare of photography. Just kidding. There cant be this many gluttons for punishment in the world...or could there be?? Seeing as Dave uses only primes he prob knows a lot about using them so heed his advice about wide open. I rarely go wide open unless I am doing close ups.

Welcome and Dave said it all!

Generally I agree with what Dave said about shooting wide open too much... but in the case these two shots (plus the others on your site), I don't see any harm has done, and in one of the shots, made the shot a lot better because of it. Shooting wide open does present a really nice bokeh, but often at the expense of softness in the image and lower contrast.

Second item, avoid shooting down at kids unless you really have great kid looking up at ya shot. Get eyeball to eyeball with them. Remember all those days when you had portraits done and the photographer ran that tape out to touch your nose. They did that 1) to make sure their preset focus was right, but it also gave them an indicator if the camera was at a level plane with they eyes of the subject. Get low with the kids and watch the cuteness factor go way up.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Thank you so much for the advice! I guess I'm still confused about DOF and what fstop to use. I get it when it's written on paper but when I actually have to do it, I get confused. So when I'm taking pictures of let's say children, like my daughter (who doesn't stop moving) i should use a lower aperture? I also can't seem to focus on both eyes, just one. I've been trying to read about it and saw a lot about a focus plane but what exactly is that? I want to eventually make a career out of this--but I am in no way ready, does anyone recommend taking a class? The only problem I have with that is i can read a lot online and its free. I would also like to test on other children like my nephews but feel a little nervous that I might not get many good shots. Is this normal haha? I know it'll take practice

Lower the Fstop NUMBER...the WIDER The Aperture...the SHALLOWER DOF. Kind of backwards but thats the long short. A basic DSLR class is a great idea.

stacy85 wrote:
=stacy85;14815047 I would also like to test on other children like my nephews but feel a little nervous that I might not get many good shots. Is this normal haha? I know it'll take practice

Yep, very normal! Use your nephews, neighbor kids, or anyone else you can get to work with you. So what you don't get good shots right now...You're learning and the only way to get better is to shoot, shoot, shoot and then critically analyze your photos to see where you can improve. To help understand depth of field, go out in your backyard and shoot a static object at different f-stops. then come in and look at them on the computer and you'll start to understand the difference. Also look here:

http://www.mir.com.my …fototech/htmls/​depth.html