Christmas program Photos... would like feedback

[crashgirl]

Hi! You may or may not remember me, but I remember you and your tips for shooting my daughters Christmas program -- Thanks! The program was really cute, but the lighting was horrible. Sunlight was coming in through a window high up in the sanctuary. The light wasn't on the kids, but it was in the eyes of many of the parents in the audience. I didn't anticipate this and wasn't sure how to adjust the flash. We also couldn't sit in the first aisles so I wasn't able to get very close. (I have the Rebel XTi and kit lens)

Here's an example of the results I got, I would like some advice from the pros how I could have improved... if you don't mind. (By the way, my daughter is the one cheesing it up in the second aisle -- LOL)

[crashgirl]

She had a part where she was center stage. I zoomed in 300% when I cropped this one since I coudln't zoom any further with the lens. (I need to get a lens with a further zoom)

Again, constructive feedback more than welcome.

[crashgirl]

And, these three are from the mall when she went to see Santa.

The pic with Santa, they let me take my own pic but I wasn't able to get the best angle because of their set up. I thought for sure I had the main focal points on Ashley but it looks more like they are on Santa.

The mirror one is with one of those funny mirrors that distorts your shape. Is there any suggestions for taking shots using a mirror?

And the train one... she was moving in the train and unfortunately she looked down just as I was taking the picture. I'd like suggestions on improving motion shots as well.

Thanks again for your tips!

[crashgirl]

Ooops, that wasn't the train one.. here is the train one. *blush* Again, too bad she looked down just as I snapped the picture.

[Nickcanada]

I'm no pro but I think they look nice. You did a good job with the lighting. The first pic looks like you focused on the kids in the front row instead of your daughter. I like the exposure though, nice colours. What flash did you use? Just the pop up?

The second picture, I wouldn't bother croping. It looks a little unnatural. I would go for a body length shot. I try to make the best of the focal range I have and compose to suite the focal range. Working with a prime is a great way to practice this.

I'd like to know what settings you used. Shutter speed, apreature, ISO, metering mode, and AF settings, oh and what your focusing procedure was (what focus point you used, or lock focus and recompose?) Focal range would be nice too so we know how far away you were from your subject.

They are much better than alot of my low light shots!

[crashgirl]

I used just the pop-up flash. These pictures are from last week, and I don't remember all the settings. I was playing around with the Shutter speed, apreature, ISO during different parts of the program... to see what worked best. The problem is that now I don't know what I used for each picture. Is there a way that I can record this information with the picture some how? Kind of like the date, where it doesn't display it unless you want to? Sorry for all the questions... I am still such a noob and haven't had time to even read all of the manual and do the reading that I want... especially this time of year.

[crashgirl]

The second picture, I wouldn't bother croping. It looks a little unnatural. I would go for a body length shot. I try to make the best of the focal range I have and compose to suite the focal range. Working with a prime is a great way to practice this.

Very Good point and tips.

I didn't do a very good job with the composition in the first place though. There were heads (from the audience) below the package and a lot of white space above her head. I liked her smile in the photo so I cropped in closely.

[cwphoto]

I think you've done a really good job considering how new you are to this camera and all that.

And I have a son who would probably like to meet your daughter. Very cute!

[Nickcanada]

You are able to pull up all the information through EXIF data. Whenever you take a picture all the data is saved with the picture and can be read later. You should have some function in your editing software to do this. What editing program are you using?

Motion shots: You will in general try to get as fast a SS as the lighting will alow. There are execptions like when you are paning or you are trying to get a sense of motion, like wheel spin. I think you are mostly worried about stoping motion right? If that is the case you will need to have a fast SS. If you have lots of light, no problem. If you have very little light than you need to sustain your SS by increasing the size of the apreature (lower F #), increasing the ISO, or add your own light (flash). You must balance all this to achive the proper exposure.

That will take care of the exposure but focusing a moving subject is also a chanlenge. You can set your AF to "AF servo" this will tell the lens to continously focus, great for paning. If your subject is moving but the movement is consistant you can set the AF to "One Shot", when the subject reaches the desired spot press the shutter button half way to lock the focus wait until the subject moves back to the same position and press the shutter the rest of the way down. This method is also useful if you want to select the focus point to somewere other than cetre but don't want to change AF points.

[SpecialK]

I'm assuming you have Canon's ZoomBrowser software. Open that and navigate to the directory of your images. Select the images, then something like "Save Image Data" (I forget the exact term as I'm not at home :-). Choose a file name and it will save the exif data in a spreadsheet-type format.

That's the first thing I do (but with other software) after renaming the images into my name system. That way if a do something that erases the exif data (easy enough to ruin) I can still look it up in my file.