I could get better pics with......

They'll totally help. Nothing beats hands on instructing and experience. Side note: if you're ever having trouble getting something super crisp and sharp, try reducing the image size with bicubic sharpener in photoshop. It's saved more than a few of my mis-focusing blunders.

 

now im starting to think its my resolution.....not the camera.....the pictures are too big for the screen....? cuz on camera theyre crystal clear, on computer screen theyre a bit...foggy, but zoomed in slightly on the screen they look fine......so......what next?

hey mike, do you think i could email you one of my RAW files and you could take a look at it?

 

ok i know for a fact its that....i adjusted the image size on m camera and they came out way cleaner

 

I'm willing to bet that it has little to do with adjusting your image size. I'm leaning towards two things: too small DOF/improper subject focus or software (iPhoto). If you swear all you did was resize the image and it came out better, iPhoto isn't resizing the images correctly. I suggest you switch over to photoshop exclusively and select bicubic sharpener etc. when reducing size.

Even though you "adjusted the image size", it's probably at ~72dpi all across the board. The only difference is the size of the canvas, the resolution should be the same (So long as you shoot in JPEG, RAW is another story) so technically resizing the image in camera should do nothing.

Looking at this image above, you used f/10 and everything looks sharp. So you know for a fact that your sensor reads normal and that at this aperture your lens is great. Just know that if you're working shallow apertures, you better be damn sure you know where you're focusing.

 

Listen to Mike...he has pretty much said everything I would say. Your Aperture was to shallow in your 1st shot of the truck. I know a lot of times when people 1st start they want that great DOF look from their shots what happens most of the time when people don't take the time to really learn this stuff is a perfect example here. You don't get want your looking for and you start to get frustrated...

don't get mad bro...it takes a lot of time, and practice to learn this stuff. The classes are definitely going to help out, you have to have an understanding of how Aperture, shutter speed, metering, and ISO work together so you can take some great shots. It's not easy and can be a bit overwhelming at times, but trust me its all well worth it in the end. OH and Exif data is very important when you want to your shots critiqued...

 

Thanks dude.

I just took my truck out for a shoot yesterday and got some great shots.

I was testing out my new sb600 and I'm starting to figure out, shooting cars I'm not gonna like any photo under f/3 so this photo I think was at 1/125 f/6.5

Bear with me I'm on my iPad
http://s631.photobucket.com/albums/uu33/Jakepbeal/?action=view&current=DSC_0024-1.jpg&newest=1

Yes I know, over exposed. But it's clear!
I'll upload some more tomorrow!
http://s631.photobucket.com/albums/.../?action=view&current=DSC_0001-4.jpg&newest=1

 

So now that you better understand DOF, are you happy with your camera again? If you had trouble with ambient light shooting, you may want to practice a little more before you really start flash shooting.

Before, it was shutter speed, iso and aperture that controlled exposure. Now Shutter speed has little to do with subject exposure and only controls ambient light. Aperture controls overall exposure. Generally, you want want the background exposure to be one stop darker than the subject. So you'll want to meter for the background, increase shutter so that it's one stop underexposed then use aperture and flash power/distance to correctly exposure your subject.

When you really start getting seriously into flash photography, look into a dedicated strobe and portable battery unit like Alien Bees. Your SB 600 wont have enough power to fight the sun on bright days.

 

Yeah man i love my camera again haha. As far as flash goes im loving it but im juts doing basic stuff with it..like point it in different directions. Im gonna read the manual a few times on my flight to fiji... so i can understand the zoom and exposure and stuff like that...thanks for all your help guys!