another try

It seems like you used your camera's on board flash, generally on board flash Isn't that great for portraits because it makes features seem flat and leaves harsh shadows. (were you looking for comments?)

Yes, thanks for cc. That makes sense, right now I only have the camera flash nothing external yet. Can you make any suggestions on a flash for my 30d. I am glad you mentioned that I wondered why everything looked so soft. Also I have a lot of questions about the settings as in the temp setting, I am not sure when to change this and what it does. I think it stays on abou 5200 but do I need to change it with every shot. (still lost but slowly finding my way)

Do you shoot RAW files? If you do you can leave the color temperature adjustment until after you take the picture, otherwise you'll have to change the temperature in camera which can be a pain (at least for me). AWB (auto white balance) gets it right most of the time, so until you become more proficient with other settings I'd recommend just leaving it on that. As for flashes, most people on the forum (as far as I know) wouldn't use a flash unless they could bounce it with an external flash unit. On board flash has it's uses too (such as for filling in shadows underneath the eyes on sunny days), but I would simply try and shoot without flash unless your just going to be shooting snapshots. Natural light can be beautiful. If your indoors, it may be tough to get enough light to shoot without a flash, but outdoors in a shady spot you should be able to get some nice pictures. (try and avoid direct bright sunlight for portraits because the lighting is very harsh) You could also try shooting by a window. All the assuming your looking to take portraits.

So once i get an external flash then I could use my on board flash, otherwise I should not be using my flash for outdoor shots. Am I getting close?? So without my flash im going to have to turn up my iso pretty high? and slower shutter and lower f-stop to let more light in? Did I make any sense?

get a 580exII and a bracket to get flash up off camera, if leaving on camera may want to get a stofen diffuser to soften the light .

you can also use flash comp which will work to some extent.

what flash bracket do most of you guys use.

ok so if I get a flash how does it fire. Does it fire like my enternal flash when I shoot the pic?

The image is a great closeup, sharp, quite well exposed, with reasonable white balance. Cute child too. The light is flat - something that's tough to overcome using the built in flash as your main source of light. You can't point the built in flash anywhere but straight ahead. Back off a bit and use the flash for fill and you have another story. Closeup it works OK (not great, but OK).

Flash photography is another learning curve. An external flash is fired several ways, but just putting it on the hotshoe and bouncing the light off the ceiling and/or walls will improve the light quality considerably.

Thanks Titus,

I appreciate your cc it makes me feel a little better. Ive been very discouraged and thought maybe it just wasn't for me, but like I tell my children we are not quiters and I am going to keep trying.