First day with the new Camera

[Dekz]

Been out of photography for a while but decided to get back into it yesterday. Went out and picked up a Kodak Z712 IS. Unfortunately I do most of my picture taking at night which definitely seems to be more challenging.

A lot of these seemed to come out quite grainy. I was able to salvage a lot of the pictures of the black car (Toyota MR2) but upping the contrast a bit. But a lot of them just looked terrible.

I'm very new to this so i appreciate ALL feedback, let me have it.

Edit: tweaked the colors on this one and think it looks much better now:

 

[AbelR74]

Hi, and congrats on the new camera!
I really like your first shot the best of the bunch!
The ones with the black car are rather dark, in my opinion, and you really can't see the smooth lines of the car; the compositions on the 3rd-5th photos are really good though..

 

[Photofiend]

I LOVE that MR2 I used to own one of the nicers ones in the states! If that is your MR2 check out my old baby!

http://www.tunerzine.com/articles.asp?id=193

 

[Dekz]

I LOVE that MR2 I used to own one of the nicers ones in the states! If that is your MR2 check out my old baby!

http://www.tunerzine.com/articles.asp?id=193

Wow, LOVE your MR2. The one i've posted here is my friends, I own the MS6. I'll be sure to send him that link to check out your car.

Thanks to some new photoshop tricks, I found one more that I think is alright:

 

[YoungPic]

i think the graininess in your pics is from high iso, adjust that and i think you'll be fine

 

[Dekz]

i think the graininess in your pics is from high iso, adjust that and i think you'll be fine

Ya I took these pics with the camera on Auto and now that I look I see that is used an ISO of 400.

Am I correct in that I could turn the ISO down and decrease the shutter speed to compensate? (this would require a tripod of course)

 

[gordon77]

ooooo i own a targa top mr2 here in nz, love them to bits. i think the composition is good for the shots above but the fluro lighting definatly does not work, try and find a car park with different lighting and see how that goes.

 

[Dekz]

I finally bit the bullet and bought a tripod, came with a nice camera bag and some screen protectors too.

Part 2 - Second day with the new camera:

Mazdaspeed 6:

These next 2 aren't that great but I feel they have some potential that I wasn't able to achieve.
I uploaded the originals in case somebody wants to take a shot at it
100_0716.JPG
100_0726.JPG

LOVE the way this one turned out:

Toyota MR2:

 

[Danimal_Inc]

from my experience from shooting cars (not a whole lot) but at night, leave the lights off. especially when they are facing the camera, the brightness is distracting and you dont get a great exposure on the rest of the car. when the car is facing away from the camera like your last shot, especially when facing a wall, the brightness is distracting