first new pictures on sony dslr (C&C welcome!)

[katielee]

So I just got a new camera for my birthday last week (a Sony dslr a350) and I ended up taking some pictures that I thought were pretty decent and I would love to hear any comments or critiques anyone has on them.
Thanks!

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[Samanax]

#1 - Shot is slightly underexposed. Seems soft too. I like that the picture isn't a standard "shot an open flower from the front" type image but the central location of the flower in the frame makes the image boring. Maybe if this was shot with the camera in portrait orientation (vertical) with the flower in the upper half and less background distractions it would be more dynamic. Try lightening the image a bit, increase contrast a bit and sharpen the image a little more.

#2 - I like that you took this in portrait orientation but don't care for the point of view (camera above the statue looking at the top of his head). Exposure looks good but could use a little sharpening. Central position of the statue in the frame isn't that bad for this shot but would have been worse if you shot this horizontally.

#3 - I like that you got closer to the subject and filled the frame with it a little more, but the central placement is boring and I don't care for the point of view. Might want to get lower to be sure you get the eyes next time. Exposure looks good but could use a little sharpening.

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[Ron Evers]

They all look soft to me.

 

[Ascentionist]

I recently bought the same camera and the lens that comes with it is terrible. I had a Minolta film camera and the lenses that came with it work great and the images are much better quality.

I would recommend saving up for a better lens. The images will definitely be sharper.

The software that comes with the camera allows you to do quite a bit of tweaking. If you took these originally as RAW images try going back and playing around with the settings.

If you're not taking RAW, images change the setting and take a few and then try out the software. For not being a high end editing program it does pretty good.