2 week old newbie, with d5100 :)

[kanzaz]

hey i'm new , using d5100 with 18-55 kit lens, what dya think? how should i improve :mrgreen::mrgreen:

pictures dont seem as sharp as on my computer..

my photos are prob pretty bad lol, first time dslr user, never knew what aperture and stuff was before

 

[BJF]

Nice shots. Very impressive DOF effects.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

Nice pics!

 

[Derrel]

You have discovered how to get shallow depth of field and selective focus on close-up shots!!! GOod for you! Keep reading about photography, and practicing your craft. One thing is to practice making photos that rely upon split-second timing. One way is to find a chain-lin k fence, or window, or an iron fence with slats or bars, and then to take photos where people passing by, or background cars, or jets on approach to the airport, are seen right through the very middle of ONE, SPECIFIC aperture... no cheating! Or, find a place where people walking by are reflected in the window of a parked car, building, or side-view mirror. This is kind of an "old" exercise, designed to familiarize you with the exact, precise time lag your camera has...and the nice thing is that there is a clearly defined "target zone", and you get to watch the subject approach, and then decide when to press the shutter button. Some people poo-pooh the "old-school exercises"; I once knew a wrestler who did just TWO things for his workouts: he ran three miles every morning, and three miles every night, and he did 500 situps a day,every day.No weights. No Universal Gym (Nautilus was just invented and very rare back then). One of the best wrestlers I ever knew. Using 2,000 year old "training" exercises.

 

[kanzaz]

You have discovered how to get shallow depth of field and selective focus on close-up shots!!! GOod for you! Keep reading about photography, and practicing your craft. One thing is to practice making photos that rely upon split-second timing. One way is to find a chain-lin k fence, or window, or an iron fence with slats or bars, and then to take photos where people passing by, or background cars, or jets on approach to the airport, are seen right through the very middle of ONE, SPECIFIC aperture... no cheating! Or, find a place where people walking by are reflected in the window of a parked car, building, or side-view mirror. This is kind of an "old" exercise, designed to familiarize you with the exact, precise time lag your camera has...and the nice thing is that there is a clearly defined "target zone", and you get to watch the subject approach, and then decide when to press the shutter button. Some people poo-pooh the "old-school exercises"; I once knew a wrestler who did just TWO things for his workouts: he ran three miles every morning, and three miles every night, and he did 500 situps a day,every day.No weights. No Universal Gym (Nautilus was just invented and very rare back then). One of the best wrestlers I ever knew. Using 2,000 year old "training" exercises.

hey thanks for the great advice, so do you mean like getting a fence, and practice taking photos between the two bars when people are moving by them? By one, specific aperture, do you mean like keep it on 5.6? And is this to practice getting like focus quickly or?

Again Thanks to you all

 

[Derrel]

You have discovered how to get shallow depth of field and selective focus on close-up shots!!! GOod for you! Keep reading about photography, and practicing your craft. One thing is to practice making photos that rely upon split-second timing. One way is to find a chain-lin k fence, or window, or an iron fence with slats or bars, and then to take photos where people passing by, or background cars, or jets on approach to the airport, are seen right through the very middle of ONE, SPECIFIC aperture... no cheating! Or, find a place where people walking by are reflected in the window of a parked car, building, or side-view mirror. This is kind of an "old" exercise, designed to familiarize you with the exact, precise time lag your camera has...and the nice thing is that there is a clearly defined "target zone", and you get to watch the subject approach, and then decide when to press the shutter button. Some people poo-pooh the "old-school exercises"; I once knew a wrestler who did just TWO things for his workouts: he ran three miles every morning, and three miles every night, and he did 500 situps a day,every day.No weights. No Universal Gym (Nautilus was just invented and very rare back then). One of the best wrestlers I ever knew. Using 2,000 year old "training" exercises.

hey thanks for the great advice, so do you mean like getting a fence, and practice taking photos between the two bars when people are moving by them? By one, specific aperture, do you mean like keep it on 5.6? And is this to practice getting like focus quickly or?

Again Thanks to you all

Yes, I meant snapping photos when people or vehicles move past the "apertures" in the chain-link fence, or the slats or bars...this is an exercise in anticipation, pre-framing, and precise, split-second timing. My use of the word aperture was perhaps a bad word choice, since it was confusing....I meant aperture as an all-encompassing word for the "space between" either fence slats, fence bars, or fence chain links. This kind of photography practice is one instance where you are going to want to, much of the time, focus AHEAD of time...on the more-distant subject matter, and not on the fence. If you do this kind of thing for even five minutes a day at lunch, after two weeks, you will know almost EXACTLY when that D5100's shutter will expose the photo. Waiting around for the autofocusing system to achieve focus is not a good thing, so manually focusing will help eliminate a huge variable, which is the focusing time, which although not long, DOES account for some milliseconds or tenths of a second.

Set up scenarios where the success of the photo depends upon making the exposure at a SPLIT-SECOND!!! Then, shoot,shoot,shoot. This exercise develops a real feel for the exact timing of your camera, and hones your anticipatory abilities. Setting the focus to Manual mode will ensure that the lens never,ever goes in to a focus hunting confusion, which can easily happen when strongly contrasting objects, like fence bars or slats, are in the foreground, or when a subject is actually a mirror reflection images, and not the car window itself.

 

[kanzaz]

any other comments, tips, advice ?