AlwaysMikesMom Loc: McMinnville, TN

I have a (new to me) camera. . . canon rebel. Only been used to a point and shoot. I took these shots of my niece and her bf at St Augustine Beach. I'm thinking the looks of these were caused by too much back lighting from the sun and wrong settings used? Tell me what I did wrong and if anyone can play with the pix and correct them please feel free to do so.

Michael13027 Loc: Baldwinsville ny U.S.

In order to try to do anything with them you need to put the original image up so it can be downloaded.

hlmichel Loc: New Hope, Minnesota

In the second image, it looks like the focus was on the leaves behind the couple.

Michael13027 Loc: Baldwinsville ny U.S.

First photo blasted by sun never put sun behind your subject unless you are using a it shoe flash. Also number two photo would have benefited from the same hotsoe flash to pop the subject out of the shadows.

alann Loc: Virginia

Please pot the originals. There is just not enough info in the scaled down pics. I am sure you will get more than just a few versions! :)

stevenelson Loc: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

Please check [store original] and download the pics again.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

With some time and effort, you could work with these two but the originals would be much better. I spent five minutes total on the two pictures just to show where you could go. These are not finished in my mind, but I do have work to do, so I could not dedicate too much time to this.

There are just all sorts of possibilities to make the pictures better.

I used Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CS6. It would take a lot more work using layers and masks to even out the exposure and contrast, correct the skin tone, replace the sky in the first picture (I did just a 15-second job in mine, again just to show you where you can go), etc., etc., etc.

JohnM Loc: Springfield, Illinois

cute kids, first thing is pose and you cant pp that. it would of helped a lot if he had not, right at that time, felt the need to hold her butt up. at her age, I am pretty sure she can do that on her own.

Mickey88 Loc: Central Florida

as a protective Dad, I was thinking the same thing..LOL
actually I would clone his hand out, then I would show him the photo and say" notice how your hand isn't on her butt anymore, see that it stays that way.."

juliestew Loc: Florida

I just want to encourage you to keep shooting. So many of my shots and lessons I learned by shooting tons of horrible shots. It does help to shoot with light in front of, not behind, your subject. There are however, photographers who master the backlit shots quite well. But that's way down the road. Shoot, shoot, shoot and you'll learn more each time. It's an uphill battle. Over the years I've put my camera down for a season because I've gotten angry that I can't seem to take one good shot. Then I pick it up and start all over again!! Learning to take that "new to you" camera off automatic and learn the manuel settings will help a lot too. On automatic, the camera picks the focal point, not you. Once you make that leap a whole new world opens up. Keep shooting!!!

JohnM Loc: Springfield, Illinois

yes, all of that!

Nikonfan70 Loc: Long Island

Try to focus on her eyes.

Phreedom Loc: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

As a protective grandfather, I was thinking the same thing.
I wondered why he didn't put his right hand at her waist which would indicate affection, protection, possession, etc.
The left hand could then have been holding hers.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

I won't try to correct these but I would ask a couple of questions. By the way I have two Canon Rebel cameras so I speak with some knowledge about them.

One: Do you have the camera set to a single focal point rather than the multiple focal points these cameras use on full auto? I ask because focus accuracy will be greatly improved if you set it that way. (see your owner's manual for details on how to set the camera that way)

With a single focal point you place that point over say a subject's eye when focusing the camera. Once focus and exposure are set hold your half press and re-frame to suit the shot and fire. This single point then forces the camera to focus where you want rather than where it thinks the focus should be. In the second shot it appears the camera chose the trees rather than your subjects. With a single point that wouldn't have happened. And, by the way, you can't operate the camera in live view or in full auto to use a single point. It has to at least be in program mode.
Your owner's manual will explain all that.

Two: Did you think about using flash on the second shot? That would have taken away most of the shadowing visible on your subject's faces.
Think about that next time you find a shady or semi-shade situation, it works quite well to fill those darker areas.

by the way, again, if you're using single point in program you'll have to pop the flash manually, then focus / expose, then re-frame and shoot.

One more: Do you always shoot at least three frames of every set up?
In the first shot you'd have noticed the back light and taken another shot.
So, at least this is what I would have done, is reposition your subjects to rid the shot of that light and fire again - always at least three of every set up. Then if one doesn't work, as in these cases, at least you'll have some where to go for perhaps a better shot.

Good Luck

Phreedom Loc: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

In the first shot your camera compensated for the bright sky which left the lower portion underexposed. Using fill flash would correct for that and illuminate the couple. Take the focus/exposure reading off of the subject's face. The white haze in the upper 1/2 is sunlight reflecting accross the lens(e). A hood/shade could have prevented this... unless you did use a tulip hood but the sun's angle allowed it to shine through the upper left cut out.

In picuture 2, again, fill flash would eliminate the shadows and bring out the subject's faces. Over all exposure was OK because foliage filled in the open sky area but your camera was focused on the leafy back ground and not the young couple.

Posing is another art. Tell the young man to place his hand on the young lady's waist, not her derriere.

When attaching the photos to the post put a check mark in the right hand box (store original). This let's us download a copy of your original file to view and perhaps work on. Instead of several thousand KB of data per photo, your posts were thumbnail quality. Picture 1 about 67 KB and 2 about 108 KB which is isn't much to work with in PP but here is what I could achieve using Corel PP Pro X4.