First Portrait shoot with the 50D

Well the girlfriend finally let me go take some pictures of her so I could get some practice in. For some reason, we decided to do this at about 4pm yesterday, during peak heat and sunshine, so the sky was pretty much always washed out. I played with a bunch of different styles in these, just for experimentation.

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a couple more:

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Great first set - love the first one - watch things coming out of their heads...

The location looks fun. Too bad it was so hot. I like the pp on the first shot on the bench

also, at this point in time, I do not have an external flash unit of any kind, so everything was using natural light, no flash. makes some things difficult, but I tried to work with it.

Your girlfriend is very nice, you got some good photos but a few seems out of focus like 3, 5, and 6.

Picture 2 she is lost in the picture.

Are you sure when you said all natural light as pic 5 and your 2nd set the fist picture of her looking towards the camera looks like a direct fill flash picture as there is a glow under her chin and on her neck with 0 shadows.

Like the choice of colors on your first picture. By the way nice camera.

hmm, i see what you're saying, maybe I did use the built in flash a few times, I honestly can't remember. I was having some issues with focusing, for some reason the auto focus never gets it 100% sharp, so I have been having to do manual focus to get it close, but I'm not that good at manual focusing yet.

woomahodal wrote in post #8341916
hmm, i see what you're saying, maybe I did use the built in flash a few times, I honestly can't remember. I was having some issues with focusing, for some reason the auto focus never gets it 100% sharp, so I have been having to do manual focus to get it close, but I'm not that good at manual focusing yet.

Concerning your focus problem. Which lens did you use? Did you use it wide open? Did you set the focus point or let the camera select? Did you use the 'one shot' mode or AI focus/servo?

woomahodal, I noticed none of the exif is intact.

If you are not using already just the center focus point I would. Personally I do not use the auto focus point selection, but manually select the points I need.

I usually end up with the center point 80% of the time or the one on the right(Top when you shoot vertically).

You mention that your auto focus never seems to get it sharp, have you played with the micro adjustment. I would do a focus tests with your camera and lens and adjust the lens if needed. The 50D focuses well and fast.

The only way to get better is keep shooting that is what I do when I have time.

Good luck.

sebr wrote in post #8341984
Concerning your focus problem. Which lens did you use? Did you use it wide open? Did you set the focus point or let the camera select? Did you use the 'one shot' mode or AI focus/servo?

I'm using the Canon 28-135mm IS lens that came with the kit. Most of those are shot wide open. I always set my own focus points, and I only use "one shot" mode. I haven't played with the AI focus/servo settings. should I?

Also, how do I keep the exif intact? I have been using RAW and saving as TIFF files, and using "save for web" to create a jpeg to upload for the internet. Is this a less than ideal way to do it?

any help is greatly appreciated!

The 4th picture fits her very well. Very nicely done.