Brand new at photography and seeking advice on these pics (please)

Mongorian · Aug 20, 2012

I got a D7000 a few months ago, been trying to shoot a few times a week and learn as much as possible.

Right now I'm limited by the fact I only have a 50mm prime lens, no flash, and no filters but have all sorts of goodies on order. Seriously, I haven't been this excited in a long time.

Some of these I ran through Lightroom to crop/straighten, and if absolutely necessary, try to touch up the levels.

Thanks for any and all advice. Like I said, I'm brand new and I know I have alot to learn

I live in a small rural town and I love this building.

I love abandoned houses but cant do much with a prime lens

Lot of dirt roads, farmland, and trees.

These were taken at two different exposures, made a huge difference on the outcome.

Not alot of violent crime where I'm from, unless you're a sign.

Mongorian · Aug 20, 2012

Sorry, I'm still getting the hang of forums too, apparently. No clue how I made that last image a thumbnail but...

Oh and dirt!! We have alot of dirt.

The moss/mold in this pic was actually neon green, I turned it down to look somewhat realistic lol

A bridge I like

Obligatory sunset pic (if someone will send me a longer lens, I swear I'll put it to good use)

buncha sticks in the water

Buncha sticks in the mud

Mongorian · Aug 20, 2012

Saw this growing out of the top of a huge old water tank.

Yesterday was a slow day, but I had the itch.

MLeeK · Aug 20, 2012

These are all really dark. Do you perhaps edit on a laptop that is not calibrated?

Mongorian · Aug 20, 2012

no but my monitor is really old and I have no idea how to calibrate it.

Mongorian · Aug 20, 2012

I tried a few calibration tests, still not seeing a problem. Are they showing up dark to everyone else? If so, I wasted many hours...though it was fun.

MLeeK · Aug 20, 2012

You need to use a calibration software and hardware together. Monitors out of the box are very bright and setup for internet and gaming. Photography is a whole different world. Because they're so bright they make you think your images are a lot brighter than they appear. You may be pretty good on color-these look pretty good for color balance. But you need to reduce your brightness to about 75% or less to begin to come close to what your image would look like to another calibrated monitor or in print.

Mongorian · Aug 20, 2012

thanks for the tip, I'll be back in a few days after I get this squared away.

Actually if a mod sees this, please delete thread

snowbear · Aug 20, 2012

Really far too many photos to give a good C&C, but I think a number of the compositions are good. There are a few interesting shots, like the stop sign, and a few that don't hold my interest. Overall, I think the exposures are decent. Keep at it - photography can't be learned in a day, a week, or even a year. Have fun.

Ysarex · Aug 20, 2012

Welcome to the photo forum. Glad you're having fun. You didn't waste time you're learning. There's a lot to learn -- folks here will help.

This isn't a method to calibrate your monitor, but it's a decent quick check. Click on this link: http://users.stlcc.edu/jangert/phpclass/greyscale.jpg

You see a 15 step greyscale. You've got trouble if you can't clearly see the difference between all 15 steps. Try adjusting your display brightness. If you can see all 15 steps you still need to eventually get a good display and get it calibrated if you're going to keep up interest in photo.

If you want help with your photos don't post so many. Pick two or three and post them with a request for comment and critique. You'll want to have a thick skin but you will get real help and can learn to improve. I'll get you started with your first photo:

You had the ISO set at 1000 -- way too high for photos outdoors.
You had saturation and sharpness values set on the camera at 2 and hard respectively. That's too much of both, set them back to zero.
You had the white balance set to auto. Until you learn a better solution OK for now, but that needs to go on your to do list to fix.
The highlights in the clouds are blown out -- overexposed. Don't know if that happened in the camera or later in LR. In the world of digital photography that's the mistake not to make because nothing can be done to repair it (replacement is often difficult).

Your photo is posted without an embedded ICC profile. If your original was a camera JEPG that profile was there. LR shouldn't remove it and so your work flow needs to be examined to find out where/how that happened and stop it from happening again.

Here's your photo with some quick fixes:

I reduced saturation especially in the greens. I made an overall white balance change and got your sky color right. It was shifted a little too cyan. The weathered grey doors on the bldg. shouldn't be purple -- not sure how that happened. There's an old utility box on the framework left. That likewise shouldn't be purple. So I pulled that purple. I raised the midtone contrast a little and if we could fix the blown highlights in the clouds we'd be lookin' pretty good.

Back to the blown highlights in the clouds: You have a classic lighting problem in this photo. Your scene contrast is too high. It's a sunny day and the sun is shining on the foreground green foliage as well as on the clouds -- the sky is blue. However the bldg. which is a major part of the photo is shaded. Bottom line the bldg. is backlit by the sky and that's an exposure problem. This building's face is pretty light but I'm guessing that cloud burn out is in the camera original. Lighting like this takes some skill to first see and then deal with.

Joe