Nifty Fifty take two

[cm121886]

Second attempt with my new nifty fifty. I tried using what I learned from my last post so let me know what you think on the composition, focus, too soft, too noisy etc..

EXIF Rebel XS 50mm f/1.8
Shutter 1/60
ISO 800
F/1.8
Flash Did not fire
50mm
Edited in Elements and Noiseware

[NicoleScraps]

I like the composition, it just seems that the focus is on the chair, not on her face. Did you set a focus point on her face? Or focus and recompose?

[BigFuzzy]

Yeah, as Nicole said, the issue here (which kept me from really looking at anything else) is the focus.

Don't use the central focus point unless you know how to focus-lock and recompose. "focus-lock' is one of those basic things all of us should get a handle on. It's really important to get the focus issues right before any of the other issues become relevant.

my .02

[cm121886]

I could be wrong but I am pretty sure I was using the upper focus point to keep her face in focus. I think what happened was that the original was very dark and in correcting the darkness and then the noise it made her face out of focus but the chair wasn't effected as much. I appreciate the comments though I still have a lot to learn because I did not even notice the chair was more in focus till your comments.

[MrJones]

like pervious comments have mentioned, it's a bit out of focus.
another issue is that it just underexposed. try bumping up the brightness.

[cm121886]

Don't know if this helps but here is the original

[IABoomer]

Are you shooting these in full manual mode, because the original is really underexposed. The camera's meter should indicate that in the viewfinder. You might want to check the manual and read up on spot metering, which would let you meter on her face to get the exposure there right.

I took a shot at editing this, and I'd like to think this is a decent edit (will remove upon request).

A couple stops of exposure correction, some highlight recovery, a little fill light, white balance correction, reduced clarity, a little hue adjustment in the skin tones, a good dose of noise reduction and some sharpening later...

Granted, with the reduced clarity and noise reduction, it's gotten a little soft, and the slight focus issue is what it is.

Another option might be to consider making this black and white, where the bit of grain might not be as distracting.

[cm121886]

Yes the edited picture is slightly underexposed because I was trying to keep noise levels low though I do like IABoomers edit what program/ programs did you use?

[IABoomer]

All Lightroom. It really is a marvelous tool.

[cm121886]

Yea I have elements 8 which I am sure could get the same results but I am still learning how to get the levels and move on from using the auto level buttons.