Im new and I need help.

[Sep]

Im new to photography and im horrible at it. One thing I cant get right for certain is exposure. I just found out my camera has a built in histogram, but i dont know how to use it and exactly wut it means. I havea Kodak z612. Its probably not the best camera in the world, but its all I have to use. I took these pics today, I cant say their that great either, but could u guys look at them and tell me wut I can improve on? I'd really appriciate any help and support.
Here a link to the pics I took today.
http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e11/Stop_Touching/Photography/02-25-07/

 

[Peanuts]

Shooting snow is probably one of the harder (if not close to the hardest) to meter. Your camera will probably want to underexpose the shot. For instance: 100_0318, possbily 100_309
By the looks of it, the rest are pretty close to being right on. In some the highlights are clipped/blown, but unfortunately the digital latitude is smaller then that of negative film (but argumentatively comparable with slide)

By looking at your EXIF data, I am taking it that it was probably a relatively overcast day/dark day by your shutter speed, ISO, and Aperature. I am not certain, but with your camera are you able to change this settings? If so, try just changing them a bit and seeing if that makes a difference.

Hopefully that helped a little bit

Edit: By the way, your composition with the leading lines (such as the path) is excellent.

 

[Sep]

Shooting snow is probably one of the harder (if not close to the hardest) to meter. Your camera will probably want to underexpose the shot. For instance: 100_0318, possbily 100_309
By the looks of it, the rest are pretty close to being right on. In some the highlights are clipped/blown, but unfortunately the digital latitude is smaller then that of negative film (but argumentatively comparable with slide)

By looking at your EXIF data, I am taking it that it was probably a relatively overcast day/dark day by your shutter speed, ISO, and Aperature. I am not certain, but with your camera are you able to change this settings? If so, try just changing them a bit and seeing if that makes a difference.

Hopefully that helped a little bit

Edit: By the way, your composition with the leading lines (such as the path) is excellent.

ya it supports alot of this come to thing about it. I did play around with them, but I not sure on how to get them right. And all of the pics I take I do manual settings without flash. I have trouble setting up the settings.

 

[Peanuts]

It may be a little hard to judge the difference with a P&S (That is an assumption of what your camera is, I didn't looks it up :S) as I am assuming (oops, again) that it is probably processing as JPEGs. In camera, it will essentially process it to its likings, and that might be why you are getting frustrated. If it is capable of shooting RAW, try that and process in the program that came with your camera.

To fully understand exposure, I would recommend going inside to a controlled environment and literally changing one setting at a time and observing the differents, after a while you will automatically be able to look at a histogram and tweek your settings for the circumstance. There is a book 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson (? I think) which is apparently fantastic. I am not certain if he goes over the histogram, which is probably one of the most benefical tools of digital cameras in my opinion.

By the way, welcome to TPF

 

[Sep]

thanx, do u happen to have any helpful links? Im defenatly going to try wut u said.

 

[Majik Imaje]

your a beginner! ha ha ha.! good for you!

I have noticed that one of the first thing a beginning STUDENT will do .. is to tip the camera. DON'T DO THAT. !

let the subject matter do the driving and turning.. keep that frame straight!

PHOTOGRAPHY is all about doing the same thing over and ove and over again.. to obtain pleasing results no matter: what / how / where / when .

just keep : Creating.. ! and looking at other peoples work that are in your world to view. Art Galleries? study technique, Time Life made a most impressive set of books on photography which I highly recommend for any serious student of photography to STUDY in great detail. Ernest Hass is the ONE PHOTOGRAPHER that inspired me the most!