Little Girl

Hi, I am still learning so much and I am trying to figure out what lens

is best for which lighting situation. I normally shoot with my 50mm

f/1.8 but for this particular shoot I decided to shoot with the good ol'

18-55mm kit lens in the hopes that I could get more in the frame...but

now I have a question. ISO 400, 24mm, f/4, 1/640sec. so I just don't

understand why it isn't in clear clear focus? Is it solely because of

the low light? Should I have used my speed flash to fix it? Or with

these settings am I standing to far from the subject to get a good

clear picture? Ugh, im annoyed. This has only happened a couple

times during shoots but I want to know how to fix it, so please any

help would be greatly appreciated. FYI I am not claiming to be a pro

know it all, hence my critique request :) Was I shooting at the

completely wrong settings?

If you had a white poster board and bounced some light back on her face you would of had the results you were looking for with your camera settings, you need to remember a camera reads reflective light, and her white pants might have push your shutter speed up, the camera if not set to spot metering is reading the light bouncing off her pants, and not her face.
If you had a hand held incident light meter and metered next to her face, your numbers would have been different then your camera settings. you may have blown out her pants slightly, but you would of had better skin tone on her face, which is your main subject.

That looked like a tricky place with all that broken lighting, on an overcast day this same place would yield a much nicer image with a slight fill light.

Hope this helps a little.

Ditto on the fill flash (or bounced light).  Not being a professional, I tend to fill with a diffused flash set to -1.5 to -2.0 EV (on the flash, not the camera). That is, of course, subject to conditions.

Was she swinging on the hammock?  I see blades of grass just beyond her that are sharper than her hair.  Being old school I always use single point focus, usually on the subject's face.

Regardless, a very cute young lady.  Try, try again ;-).  Welcome to PNet...  Mike

I notice her feet, in the sunlight, are quite sharp, so it's

just a matter of proper exposure. Due to the strong back light, without an HDR image, it would be impossible to have even illumination across the scene. That leaves fill flash. Experiment with various output settings and flash placements. No matter how sophisticated the gear becomes, trial and error will always be necessary in some situations, to get the perfect shot. Just keep taking pictures, and you will become a skilled photographer; it's really the only way to learn. Best Regards, Jerry King

Thank you all so much!  I was hoping it was the lighting, something that I can definitely get better at :)  I have a shoot tonight and y'alls comments have made me feel much better about not making the same mistake!!  She was swinging slightly, I wish she wouldn't have wore white pants...it does make everything trickier in weird lighting situations...I'll have to post another picture in the same setting and see if I get it all fixed!  Thanks again!