Some of my first shots with Nikon D9

Primoz · Jul 4, 2010

Hey guys!

I've had my Nikon D90 for about 2 weeks now and already made lots of shots.
I'd really like to hear your comments on pontential mistakes I made and advice on how to correct those and get better in composition, exposure, editing... etc.
So here they are...

1. cookies

(playing with DOF)

2. low light test

3. my hometown (Maribor)

4.

5. Maribor

6. festival at the coast of river Drava

7.

8. festival lent (the jazz stage)

9.

10. long exposure night shot

11. first attempt of shooting fireworks (next time I have to get a better position

)

Retro_10s · Jul 4, 2010

Try and limit the amount of photos in each thread, people are more likely to reply with C&C if it doesn't require a mammoth sized reply!

* The cookies are underexposed, try lighting them a little better - knock the ISO down to 200 and make the aperture a little smaller to get a little more in focus, by one stop perhaps - that would make it more pleasing to me. mmm cookies.

* Pictures 3 and 4 don't do much for me because of the composition, 3 is underexposed slightly, the trees are just black shadows and really distract me,.. picture 4 has a strange angle, messy shadows and wires every where, my eyes don't know where to look and it's not comfortable to look at.

* 5, 6, and 7, are well exposed - but nothing more than nice holiday pictures to me.maybe you'd find them in a travel brochure somewhere, they're nice, but i don't really feel anything back from them.

* 8 is pretty good in essence but there are some things that I don't like, The mic stand in front of the trombonist is messy and is in the way of the subject. The light at the top of picture (easily edited out) is distracting, and the Saxophonist on the left half of the picture needs removing... (again, easy in Photoshop)

9. I quite like this, exposed nicely, focus could be a sharper, and the angle doesn't make me feel seasick lol.

10. beautiful, Crop the grass off the bottom of the picture and I think you've got a keeper, good angle (thought it's not quite straight), good focus, Nice exposure (could even have been a little longer i feel)

11. doesn't do anything for me, the crop is very tight, but overall it's a pretty picture.

Primoz · Jul 4, 2010

Retro_10s said:
Try and limit the amount of photos in each thread, people are more likely to reply with C&C if it doesn't require a mammoth sized reply!

* The cookies are underexposed, try lighting them a little better - knock the ISO down to 200 and make the aperture a little smaller to get a little more in focus, by one stop perhaps - that would make it more pleasing to me. mmm cookies.

* Pictures 3 and 4 don't do much for me because of the composition, 3 is underexposed slightly, the trees are just black shadows and really distract me,.. picture 4 has a strange angle, messy shadows and wires every where, my eyes don't know where to look and it's not comfortable to look at.

* 5, 6, and 7, are well exposed - but nothing more than nice holiday pictures to me.maybe you'd find them in a travel brochure somewhere, they're nice, but i don't really feel anything back from them.

* 8 is pretty good in essence but there are some things that I don't like, The mic stand in front of the trombonist is messy and is in the way of the subject. The light at the top of picture (easily edited out) is distracting, and the Saxophonist on the left half of the picture needs removing... (again, easy in Photoshop)

9. I quite like this, exposed nicely, focus could be a sharper, and the angle doesn't make me feel seasick lol.

10. beautiful, Crop the grass off the bottom of the picture and I think you've got a keeper, good angle (thought it's not quite straight), good focus, Nice exposure (could even have been a little longer i feel)

11. doesn't do anything for me, the crop is very tight, but overall it's a pretty picture.

Great, thanks for your useful advice.
I was thinking how many photos to upload, but I wanted to show a variety of photos in different situations I took. I'll try to limit them down next time

.
I agree that the pictures of town have a lack of backstory so I'll try to be more creative in future to get more dramatic look.
I was also struggling taking photos of the jazz performance, because the lightning was poor and my Nikkor 18-105 is just not meant for that kind of use. What I got were a bunch of shaked shots. The ones that were acceptable I cropped and made the more dynamic by rotating them a bit.
While shooting fireworks I just didn't have the right position, as I had been expecting it over the bridge to get a nice composition.

Primoz · Jul 4, 2010

I did some more editing on the photo no. 8. (I removed the microphone that distracted the musician and cropped it a little bit)
It's just funny, because the shadow of the microfone remains... I am new to PS so I don't know how to get rid of it.

Here are the results:

And the old one again so you can compare side by side: