Newbie with New camera needs critique!

sheyene29 · Apr 27, 2008

I finally dragged my sick butt out to test out the new camera. Not only is this a new camera but I'm a complete newbie photographer, so any and all critique is more than welcome.

I was more or less playing with composition with these photo's, but any help on improving lighting would be great!!

This one I was just playing with depth of field.

LOL, I know, most of them are of a wagon wheel, but it was the most interesting thing I could find to change my composition of.

sheyene29 · Apr 27, 2008

Anyone?? I promise I won't stomp my feet and cry if someone is harsh lol!

KhronoS · Apr 28, 2008

There aren't that good. I think i like the 4th and maybe the 6th picture, but rest are quite basic, nothing interesting to show.
Keep practicing, you'll get better

SBlanca · Apr 28, 2008

quite harsh to say that, i would think that even if you dont like them you would say you did out of courtesy but still give some own opinion of how to improve...

i think they are seriously good, i mean it.

for a begginer they are good, and i know with time you could surely become much better but for a first try theyre very good!

the first one seems a bit over exposed...

im not too keen on the 3rd and 4th but i see where you're going with them.

my fav from the bunch are 2, 6 and 7 they look really good.

good photos in the whole, well done, keep at it, and keep reading things on this forum, you'll learn loads and get loads of ideas

Fliphishermon · Apr 28, 2008

A number of your photos, intentionally or not, use depth of field.

I'd read up on DoF and find out how to adjust your camera to get "just that field" depth for a particular photo.

Take shots. Lots of shots!

sheyene29 · Apr 28, 2008

Thanks guys!

Don't worry, I'm not offended. Like I said, I'm here to learn and this was my very first attempt at taking pics with a good camera, well, really my first attempt at taking anything other than snapshots, so I wasn't expecting anyone to be wowed by them lol!

Thanks for the honesty, and if you have any more tips keep em coming!

asfixiate · Apr 28, 2008

For some reason I like the 5th and 6th down the most.

I won't add the for a beginner thing either. They're interesting to me.

kristyinchelsea · Apr 28, 2008

I'm a beginner so i don't know how far my opinion goes but I love a lot of these. I could surely see great photos like these on my walls for that country feel. I say keep up the work and in time you will blow people away with your Photos. I take mainly snapshots with my digital (+ the occasional insect/plant close up) and could only dream of getting as good as a shot as some of these.

Thanks for sharing. Just my 2 cents!

sheyene29 · Apr 29, 2008

Awe thanks guys, I appreciate the compliments and the honesty.

obsessivephotographer · May 1, 2008

I really like the second one, but I would have liked to see the window a bit less overexposed, but I really like the shadows and lighting in the barn.

miguellara78 · May 1, 2008

I'm a newbie too but for what I can tell, 2 is nice but could have been better with the right exposure, like obsessivephotographer said, window is overexposed compared to the underexposed shadows.
And my favorite is #6 for sure.

Good job and the key for us newbies is keep practicing.
I don't know what camera you own but you should spend a good amount of time reading the manual and getting very confortable with it's features, advantages and shortcoming, that will for sure help you to improve.

Village Idiot · May 1, 2008

You're having exposure problems in about half of those. I don't know if it's in camera or in post processing, but they seem a tad dark. If you're shooting RAW, remember that you can over expose (according to a meter that's correct) a little big and bring the exposure down in post if necessary. You'll actually be able to achieve a greater range of tone(I'm guessing this would be the right turn...my diet pepsi is making me a bit fuzzy) in your image by doing this. Nothing that's going to be Earth shattering mind you, but you may find that it helps out a bit. My biggest flaw is that I under expose a lot, but it's usually with my flashes. That's why I'm probably ordering a light meter tomorrow morning.

sheyene29 · May 8, 2008

Sorry for the delayed response guys, stupid internet was down for a week lol!

obsessivephotographer said:
I really like the second one, but I would have liked to see the window a bit less overexposed, but I really like the shadows and lighting in the barn.

miguellara78 said:
I'm a newbie too but for what I can tell, 2 is nice but could have been better with the right exposure, like obsessivephotographer said, window is overexposed compared to the underexposed shadows.
And my favorite is #6 for sure.

Good job and the key for us newbies is keep practicing.
I don't know what camera you own but you should spend a good amount of time reading the manual and getting very confortable with it's features, advantages and shortcoming, that will for sure help you to improve.

Thanks!

I was playing with the aperature, but I have to admit that my new camera intimidates me a bit lol, too many darn buttons and dials but that was really why I bought it.

Village Idiot said:
You're having exposure problems in about half of those. I don't know if it's in camera or in post processing, but they seem a tad dark. If you're shooting RAW, remember that you can over expose (according to a meter that's correct) a little big and bring the exposure down in post if necessary. You'll actually be able to achieve a greater range of tone(I'm guessing this would be the right turn...my diet pepsi is making me a bit fuzzy) in your image by doing this. Nothing that's going to be Earth shattering mind you, but you may find that it helps out a bit. My biggest flaw is that I under expose a lot, but it's usually with my flashes. That's why I'm probably ordering a light meter tomorrow morning.

Thanks for the tip, I do believe I have my camera set at Jpeg fine. It's a brand new Nikon d200 so its totally the operators fault lol.

So much to learn!