My First Effort

[tenlientl]

Hello. I hope you guys can comment on a few pictures. Just last week I knew nothing abuot aperture, shutter speed, etc. This is actually my first SLR. I always did enjoy point-and-shooting though.

#1- i dont know why i made it this bright. i guess i didnt want it to look like the 'original yet boring' like the one below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31077549@N07/2917092681/
1/60 sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. 66mm


#2 - see? seems so plain
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31077549@N07/2917943318/
1/60 sec at f/5.6. ISO 800. 66mm


#3 - i loved those black and whites ive being seeing around here. i wanted to try
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31077549@N07/2917946714/
1/60 sec at f/1.8(tried out 50mm at a store). ISO 200. 50mm


#4 - original nef->dng was too bright. tried my best to make it look better. which imo was decent. would playing with the Vignettes a little bit more make this pic better?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31077549@N07/2917949336/
1/50 sec at f/5.0. ISO 200. 58mm


Oh. If it's important and/or any cares. I used Nikon Transfer. Converted the D90 NEF to DNG with Adobe DNG Converter. Then used Lightroom 2 to develop.

 

[KhronoS]

Well in the first two you should watch your white balance
The third one is blurry for using the combination between slow shutter speed and shaky hands And beside this you cut his face and looks weird.
The 4th one looks better

 

[tenlientl]

Yea. The second one was untouched. Just wanted you guys to compare with the first.

So how could I improve the 2nd one(therfore the first one)?

 

[Photog]

Remove the vignette in the last one! That's not a good way to make up for overexposure... It might be alright to leave a partial vignette, but you're vignetting over half his face on the right

 

[tenlientl]

Oh. haha. I thought Vignetting would "frame" it.

How's this?

http://flickr.com/photos/31077549@N07/2918190320/

 

[Photog]

Better, but you could do more in PP. Gave it a quick go, hope you don't mind. I can delete it if you want.

 

[tenlientl]

No, that's cool. I like to compare. It's how I learn.

Anyways. What is PP? Picture perfect? Post process? Paintshop Pro?

And how did you get that? With my last one, I lowered the exposure, lowered temperature. Lightroom 2 btw.

 

[Photog]

PP means post-processing. I used PS Elements for my edit and used a few techniques to increase contrast, lower exposure, smooth skin tones and sharpen the image.