My first 'gig'

silvertank

I'm new to DSLR photography (started this past Christmas 2010) and have been to a couple of classes and put about 10,000 clicks on my Canon 7d. Yesterday was my first paying job. I had no time to plan because I found out the night before, so in a hurry I had to put a cheap package together. This was for my son's T-Ball team. It was 12 kids and their coach.

It was my first time at this particular field and it was 5:30pm (we have good sunlight until around 7:00pm). There were a lot of trees. As I was walking to the baseball field, I was looking around and trying to think of a good place to do the shoot. I wasn't quite sure and I was a little nervous too. Hmmm...should I put them in direct sunlight or complete shade? Facing the sun or 90 degrees from it.

I chose to have them stand with the sun to their left. A shadow would be cast on the right side of their faces and body, but I thought my flash would take care of that but it didn't. I had 2 baseball bats laying on the ground (cris-crossed) along with a baseball helmet, glove, and ball. The kids were standing and I shot their entire body in order to get the sports equipment in the shot. I didn't like it at all, so I cropped them out (throwing away more than half of the image.

I have a Canon 7D & 17-55 2.8L with a SpeedLite 580EX II. My images are not as sharp as I expected. I don't think they came out well enough at all, but that may be my opinion, so i'm posting one pic that I has cropped and processed. Please give me your opinions and advice so that I can learn for my next job that is coming up in 2 weeks.

Sam

Really hard to comment with only one image. Can you post a link to several of the originals?

Did you shoot RAW?

Always go for full shade..............Although the shadow in this image isn't real bad, no shadow would be better.

Now not to be cruel but...................I think you should have waited before charging anyone. It's your son's team, I think it would have been better to use this as a strait learning experience.

Sam

Zerodog

Whenever I am doing something new, I practice first. This way I have an idea of what I want to do. Next time, go to the field the night before and setup just as you would for the real deal. Or, at least do it in your back yard. I have lots of photos of my wife posing like a fighter. In the end you figure out what works and what doesn't before you do the real shoot. Makes things a lot less stressful.

silvertank

Sam wrote: »

Really hard to comment with only one image. Can you post a link to several of the originals?

Did you shoot RAW?

Always go for full shade..............Although the shadow in this image isn't real bad, no shadow would be better.

Now not to be cruel but...................I think you should have waited before charging anyone. It's your son's team, I think it would have been better to use this as a strait learning experience.

Sam

Sam, I agree. I didn't charge much...I had 2 packages...one was $12.00 and the other was $20. Basically just a little over the price of the prints.

I always shoot RAW. I posted this thread while at work and I only had access to the finished product. Here's a link to the originals SOOC...converted to JPG.

Carl

pathfinder

The dappled sunlight on that field would have scared me off.

Dappled light looks fine to one's eye, but photographs poorly with mottled shadows on folks faces if you aren't extremely careful. And mottled shadows do not Photoshop out nicely either.

Sam's suggestion of shade sounds very good to me - use that big blue softbox in the sky for nice soft light. Add some fill flash, and you are golden.

Sam

silvertank wrote: »

Sam, I agree. I didn't charge much...I had 2 packages...one was $12.00 and the other was $20. Basically just a little over the price of the prints.

I always shoot RAW. I posted this thread while at work and I only had access to the finished product. Here's a link to the originals SOOC...converted to JPG.

Carl

I was trying to gain access to the original images. The ones on Smugmug are processed. I wanted to see the exif data, and be able to zoom in to see the sharpness, etc.

I am off to a shoot................something new for me. A glamor, head shot, night shoot with a make up artist. I am doing this as a trade time for photos. because it's a little new I get to practice so I can charge next time and have examples.

When you charge anything I believe you / me / us need to show up with the necessary equipment and know how to use it.

All that said I / we are here to help you learn, and I am glad you didn't charge much, but I do think it's better at this point to charge nothing and let them buy off your site if they like them.

Sam

silvertank

Thanks Sam. The originals are now available from that link. Let me know what you think.

silvertank

Thanks, I'll check the settings on the flash. I agree the helmet does look more in focus and don't understand why since I had my focusing set to a single point on the boy's face. Hmmm...

Sam

Ok, after looking at these I am somewhat baffled. The shutter speeds seem to be high enough. I would have used f5.6 or f8, and for the group shot maybe even f11. But that isn't the problem, just a thought. I also noticed what looked like large areas of solid shade on the field.

On some of the shots I am seeing what look likes front focus.

I would start with putting the camera on a tripod, and shoot a ruler at maybe 30 degrees going away from the camera and focus on the 6" mark. Try different f stops and see where the focus is. This can verify if the focus is front or back focusing.

These image are very similar to my experience with a 7D, which I returned.

Some of the images look Ok at less than 100%, but at 100% they are not sharp. Others are not sharp at any size.

Start with the tripod test and move on from there.

Sam

silvertank

Thanks guys, I'll try out the test to see what's going on here.

silvertank

Sam, I put the camera on a tripod outside and set a measuring tape on the ground. I focused on the 23" mark. The first photo was with the flash and the second was without the flash. It seems to be focusing in the correct spot but still looks soft. Also, I cannot set the shutter speed over 1/250 with the flash turned on...I guess this is a normal function.

Richy, you mention that High speed sync sometimes messes up sharpness on photos. What do you mean when you say High speed sync? The flash was in ETTL mode.

Here is a link to the two photos of the measuring tape.

moose135

silvertank wrote: »

Also, I cannot set the shutter speed over 1/250 with the flash turned on...I guess this is a normal function.

In normal operations, you are limited to 1/250 when using a flash. That's a fairly standard number on Canons (and I believe other brands as well).

silvertank wrote: »

What do you mean when you say High speed sync? The flash was in ETTL mode.

There is an option on your Speedlite (and maybe a menu setting on your 7D) that lets you select High Speed Sync to enable you to shoot at faster shutter speeds. It changes the way the flash fires, and results in a lower light output from the flash.

silvertank

Thanks Moose!

silvertank

makes sense. Thanks!