What am I doing wrong?

[mwikette]

I have a Canon 40D - recently in for repairs - not sure if camera issue or end user issue. At any rate, what am I doing wrong?

[danpics]

You need more fill light. I'm not sure about your camera but mine has a flash setting for fill light so you don't get too much flash but just enough to compensate for the back light.

[mwikette]

Okay - I am a SAHM with a SLR camera. In other words, not alot of SLR camera experience/knowledge. So, what does "more fill light" mean. Do I need to use an external light or buy a 580EX. I did not see any functions on my camera for fill light. I have the Canon 40D.

[danpics]

I don't know much about your particular camera so i'm not much help there. Fill light is the light you use to help fill in shadows escpecially if there is a strong light from behind the subject. That's what is causing the faces to be shadowed so much. You can use your camera's regular flash or you can also edit the shots on your computer to add fill light. Picasa and Gimp2 are some good free editing programs you can download. Also check out the photography tips at picturecorrect.com they explain a lot of photography terms and go over some good basics.

[SmartWombat]

I see that you are shooting into the light a lot, rather than with the light coming over your shoulder and lighting up your subject.
That's fine if you have a powerful flash to fill in the shadows, or if you know how to adjust for the bright background and dark subjects.

If you have bright sun in your subjects' faces then they will squint, so using shaded areas is good - but you have to have a shaded background too for the camera to get the exposure right without help.

The one where it looks overcast, apart from not holding the camera level, the shutter speed of 1/250 second isn't enough to freeze motion, so the girls appear blurred.
You can adjust the ISO setting higher, to give a faster shutter speed, you can adjust the aperture wider (smaller f/stop) to give a faster shutter speed.

You are rarely getting close enough.
When you did in the last picture, your camera was fooled by the bright background into under-exposing the subjects. Either pop-up the flash on the camera, or use the +/- button to dial in about +2 of exposure compensation for the shadows.

The pumpkin patch group picture looks out of focus. But I'm not sure if softness is due to the conversion to jpeg and resizing to fit here, or if it was really out of focus.

[Anbesol]

An easy way of adjusting for some of those is to place your camera setting on spot metering, then placing the center of the frame over the area you want well lit, if you recompose - use your AEL toggle. But yes, like others said, having your subjects face the light is another thing. Refer to your manual to tell you exactly how to use these functions and what they do on your camera.

Checked your EXIF and I see you are using an automatic mode - It pays off to put some effort into understanding how to use a 'priority mode', Aperture (Av) or Shutter (Tv). This gives you a lot more control over the entire scene. The only reason these automatic modes are included in these SLRs is as a marketing tactic, truly its wasteful to shoot in those modes. Priority modes are a lot different and a lot easier than manual, but still every pro I know uses them in many situations with reliable results.

What is it in being repaired for?