Am I doing something wrong? XT with a huge lack of detail.

EOS MAN1 wrote in post #4631978
hmm or I am just over analyzing my photos.

Bingo......the drawback of being able to view stuff +100% on a computer. Drives people insane. Maybe if you print it 16X20 then get 8 inches from it you might actually see that......LOL

Ok, I think we can all agree I am too picky. I can't wait for the 5D replacement. Don't get me wrong, the XT is a great camera, and it has done very well for me. But the detail of the 5D or hopefully is replacement are amazing. I want to get the most out of L lenses. I think I need to get another flash too. It would probably help the photo above. Considering I only had the rim light on the left with the strobe and the rest was ambient(makes sense-less detail because you are supposed to expose for the right).

EOS MAN1 wrote in post #4631978
Could be. I am seeing it more often then not in my post processing. I was just wondering if that is the typical detail of the XT. It is possible that i suck at lighting too. . . hmm or I am just over analyzing my photos.

yeah stop over analyzing ...

I think this next semester I start in a few weeks will help things a lot. I am in the Studio and Location Lighting class and the Digital imaging course this semester. Hopefully sooner than later I will finish this Bachelors Degree in Photography.

As I play with your crop, it definitely does not have enough light to get any detail. There is alot of low exposure noise in that shadow area. With a subject that has alot of bright light, along with alot of shadow, you might want to play with AEB (exposure bracketing), then merge the 3 different exposed shots in different layers. It is hard for me to post process such a shot without 3 different exposed shots, but here is my best attempt at using curves, brightness/contrast, and hue/saturation.

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EOS MAN1 wrote in post #4632046
I think this next semester I start in a few weeks will help things a lot. I am in the Studio and Location Lighting class and the Digital imaging course this semester. Hopefully sooner than later I will finish this Bachelors Degree in Photography.

I envy you in following your dream ...go for it and learn every single little detail...I know I would relish the oppurtunity.

Oh yeah...one more very very important element to keep in mind as you're working hard.

Have fun too

Yeah, your right.

Here is a better exposed photo IMO. I don't see any of that crummy detail. I think the exposure is the problem.

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I think that is a better exposed picture, I like the composition as well.

My Uncle kept pushing me to be an electrical engineer. I didn't want to do it. I would have been good at it, but I didn't have the desire. I changed my major five times before I decided I was going to do something I enjoy. You only live once, and I wasn't planning on wasting my life in a job I hate. It would be to stressful. My fiance has been so supportive. She is graduating with her master's degree in Psychology in August. She has told me many times that if we can make a decent living, she would be my assistant and run the business end while I do the Photography end. We'll see how it goes. I am so grateful to have someone that truly appreciates my passion for photography.

Some good advice from a photo journalist I chatted a while back with told me be ready for some really hard work. Being freelance means alot of little paying jobs. Before running your business look into being an apprentice ..it pays crap but apprenticeship is basically paid schooling and allows you to learn about the business.

cdifoto wrote in post #4631879
I don't see anything you're talking about. Print it then tell me it's a problem.

Best advice.
If people routinely did this, we would have a lot less "problem" posts in the forums!

I am working on finding an apprenticeship. It can't pay less than what I am making now. Trust me, its not much. My plan is to do photography for corporations. It is a market that is willing to pay. We'll see as the schooling goes. I am sure I will learn a lot before I am out on my own as a photographer.

EOS MAN1 wrote in post #4631723
If you look closely, it looks to me like a major lack of detail. As far as I can see this is properly exposed. It almost looks like chris-crossed lines. You really have to looks close to see what I mean. There is muddy detail. What am I doing wrong. If I do any kind of sharpening, the muddy criss-cross detail sticks out really bad. Am I crazy, is it user error? I need to know........This is ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/200, w/flash, and shot with the Canon 24-70 f/2.8L one of their best lenses.

High contrast lighting could be part of the problem -- there are some blown highlights and a large amount of strong shadow -- to the light meter, it all looks like 18% reflectance with whatever weighting compensation you were using. Deep shadows are noisy -- that is the nature of digital imaging (50% of the 4096 luminosity levels are in the brightest exposure zone and by the time that you get to the lowest zone that has any detail, you are down to 64 or 32 luminosity levels to provide the image detail -- this translates to various types of noise such as processor quantizing and sensor threshold).

I have the same lens on an XTi, so I know that it is a very capable lens. I think that the lens did OK, but there is probably some camera shake in the image.

EOS MAN1 wrote in post #4631856
Oh yeah, this is shot in RAW and post processed in lightroom.

Since you post processed the image, it is more difficult to analyze the image since I don't know what you may have done.

Even with the processed JPG files there are enough image details to improve it quality as shown below.

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What did you do in your post processing?