Having Major Trouble

<p>I'm pretty new to wedding photography and I would not call myself a professional, but I do have some experience. Here are my problems and I need to know if it is my equipment or myself. Im shooting with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, and a Canon Speedlite 430x. 90% of the time my photos have a REALLY soft look to them, never crisp. I have to do A LOT of post shooting editing in photoshop and still do not get what Im expecting, and when I use my flash everything looks REALLY washed out. I even bounce the light and use a Gary Fong Diffuser.<br />Im also having a color issue indoors. I will post a pre and post photoshop photo.</p><div></div>

<p>Which way are you bouncing the flash normally. For example, in a situation like your photo example?</p>

<p>This was straight on without the diffuser. I hadn't purchased it yet.</p>

<p>The people are in focus and you have a shallow depth of field. If you want everything to be sharp shoot at F11 to F16; maybe F8.</p>

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<p>Try not using the bounce flash "straight on". I normally bounce off anything I can find that is "bounce worthy" to get a less harsh, washed-out apperance. That being said, I'm a Nikon gal so I don't have any experience with Canon flashes or cameras.</p>

<p>Front focused.</p>

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<p>This was straight on without the diffuser. I hadn't purchased it yet.</p>

<p>Yep, agree with David--front focused. Too wide an aperture to use without extremely careful focusing, particularly for formals--specs were ISO 400 1/50th, f2.8--focus on Mom's sleeve is OK. This is for this picture. For the rest of it, probably a combination of flaky focusing from auto focus systems, possibly from the 24-70mm, which has kind of a reputation for misfocusing, motion or hand holding blur.</p>

<p>Flash is OK on this shot. You need to show what you mean by washed out--do you mean overexposed?</p>

<p>Actually, I guess flash isn't all that OK, after I looked at the shot again. Seems not to have output much light--not enough, anyway, to fill eye sockets.</p>

<p>Ok. Maybe its my computer then. I have a labtop and I think that everything looks soft when Im editing. I was thinking about upgraded my camera body?? As far as the color...Im using the white balance features on the camera and never auto white balance. This picture was in a gym and I had it set to white fluorescent. And again, I think it look blurry.</p>

<p>Yes sometimes it over exposes and I've found that I need to go down several stops to keep that from happening. Im to the point where I just want to sell all of my stuff because I get so frustrated!! I just cant get the right results.</p>

<p>Different camera body isn't going to help you if it is all the things I mentioned. The photo above does look soft, but who can tell with a small image? Post a cropped section. The photo is underexposed. If you are shooting jpegs, you need to get closer on white balance and do some custom white balances. Here's a tip, too--generally speaking, stay away from walls. The shadows don't look good.</p>

<p>Are you talking 2 stops or more overexposed? If so, I would suspect a contact problem. When the flash doesn't make good contact with the hotshoe, it reverts to TTL and blasts out a full power, which overexposes everything.</p>

<p>Okay. I'm shooting everything RAW. Here is a different picture straight from my camera.</p><div></div>

<p>Yes 2 or more stop overexposed. And I have it attached to my camera, working on TTL.</p>

<p>Well the last shot is due to handholding blur. 1/20th at 51mm (which is 82mm with cropped sensor camera) isn't going to cut it. As for the flash, there is a difference when the flash displays TTL as opposed to ETTL. When the display says ETTL, that's good. When it says TTL (and you haven't set it that way via a custom function), that's bad. The behavior is as I noted above.</p>

<p>If you are shooting RAW, take care of the white balance in post processing. I shoot RAW and leave the camera control to Auto, since I fine tune white balance in post.</p>

<p>You may want to read the article at photonotes.org/eosflash.</p>

<p>Ok. I never had problems with focusing when I used a film camera. And now it seems like, with digital, it looks like I dont even know what Im doing. Do you think all of my equipment is compatiable? Do you think the lens is too much for me?</p>

<p>Also, check your hotshoe plate isn't loose. This is one of the main causes of the flash not making good contact. There is a way to tighten it.</p>

<p>The lace on moms sleeve looks sharp to me. The brides dress shows detail, but the eye sockets are a tad dark, meaning your flash really didn't fill enough. This is also indicated by the harsh shadows on the faces.</p>

<p>RAW IMAGE - Several problems occurred, a bit soft, color is way off, and maybe you didn't use a flash here. I don't think you have camera movement, however some lenses have weak points. so if you were at F 2.8 this lens may not be totally sharp. Try setting your lens to F 5.6.</p>

<p>Next, program your camera manually by setting your white balance to flash, if you use a flash. Auto white balance is not your best setting.</p>

<p>Keep posting pictures, with these new settings so we can zero in your camera.</p>

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<p>What film gear did you have? One of the things about digital is the fact you can look at your images at great magnifications, so you can instantly see if something is soft. Looking at small prints from film, you may not have noticed something wasn't crystal clear.</p>

<p>The 24-70mm has had it's share of misfocus problems. Don't know about it personally but David W. can tell you. However, it isn't a question of it being too much for you. And I suspect there are other reasons overall, not just that lens, if it has anything to do with the problems.</p>

<p>You need to take one thing at a time.</p>

<p>Okay. I have a tendency to shoot A LOT at F 2.8, maybe this is the problem. I will play around with this and post some new stuff. Also, is the Rebel XTi a good enough camera for weddings?</p>

<p>I think it is a fine camera. You can make some very nice 16X20 prints using this camera. It's not considered a professional camera, but in the right hands you can produce professional looking images. Your next best camera to save up for would be the 50D, the 5D, or the 5D mark 2.</p>

<p>I would rather see you get a more powerful flash first, then get another body. The 580 flash units are pretty decent for the money.</p>

<p>okay. I just really dont know why everything comes out blurry. It looks in focus in the view finder and I dont think I have that much hand movement. Who knows. Its just VERY frustrating!!</p>

<p>Brooks--it isn't just one problem. On the formal, f2.8 is a bit wide to use, because you want some depth of field in such photos, particularly for a margin of focusing error, just because these photos are important. On the last image you posted, the softness was from hand holding shake. f2.8 is fine on that, because the people are on the same plane. Had you not used 1/20th (too slow to handhold at your chosen focal length), and you nailed the focus, it would have been fine. You DO understand about hand holding shake?</p>

<p>As for the 24-70mm--if it IS a lens issue, you would need to send it in to Canon for the focus to be recalibrated. There are ways of checking focus. I'd do some searches on the Canon forum.</p>

<p>The camera is OK, quality wise for weddings.</p>