I have a sb 600 flash..Decent lighting, and I even have the camera set on automatic. I am trying to take nice portraits, yet my pics look great on the mini screen, but are clurry and look terrible when I attempt to edit them. Is it my lighting?? I dunno..Just any suggestions would greatly help. As teef says, seeing samples would really help us help you.
If you don't have an on-line photo site yet, just go to Flickr and set up a free account. Upload a few pictures and come back with a new question (or additions to this one) and post the link to your Flickr images. We can probably figure out what's up that way.
It's hard to imagine getting blurry pictures with all that you have said unless you are not getting the "beep" to confirm auto-focus is complete before pressingthe shutter all the way.
The SB600 ought to sync okay with your D50 on "Auto" without your having to set the shutter speed. The camera takes care of this for you as it can sense when you have the SB600 attached to the camera.
You may have the flash sync option set to slow sync (with or without redeye reduction) or rear curtain sync. If you are set to slow sync, you will get camera blur as your shutter will stay open as long as it otherwise would remain open if you were not using the flash. Look on page 36 of your manual for an explanation. I see you should not be able to use rear curtain sync in auto mode, though... so that makes me suspicious. Please do not be offended by this, but bear in mind that I know NOTHING about your skill level... Be sure that you are using the little green icon for auto and not the letter "A," which stands for "Aperture priority" and not "Automatic" on the D50.
I say this because I just think you must be using slow sync and you can only do this in P or A modes. if you're trying to zoom them more in the editing you're changing the resolution. don't zoom them in editing. You have great equipment.
There could be many reasons for this.
Do you have your camera set to make larger images using fine Image quality?
Putting the camera on automatic is not the way to shoot using flash ... even a fine SB-600. Make sure your shutter speed is fast enough to preclude camera movement (up to 1/500 sec on your camera). Use the shutter priority to set up your camera to do this.
I have to ask you. How much experience do you have photographing people? Portraits are not usually shot using on camera flash units. You may find taking a course or two at a local community college and enjoy learning more techniques that will enhance your success in making images
Take a look at the photos found of on One Model Place and look closely at the way the photographers light their models. You will notice that most of the shots are done using main light (off to one side) and perhaps a fill light ... or not. I have that exact setup and the pics come out almost the same as my D80 with a better lens and an SB800. Is there any chance we could see a sample. Blur occurs for a few different reasons, perhaps if I saw an example I could offer more insight. do you hold the shutter button in half way to let it focus As fotoace says, to take really professional shots, you need better lighting than a camera-mounted flash, but I don't think that's your problem. My suggestions:
Use a tripod, set your camera to ISO 250 or 400, depending on the lighting, aperture priority, and white balance to flash. Experiment with the aperature: 5.6 to 8 should be good though. Make sure the SB600 is in TTL mode.
I don't remember if the D50 has spot metering, but if it does, try that, to narrow the metering down to your subject's face.
If you send me a sample, maybe I can think of something else. | 