Finally made the plunge into the DSLR world with a Nikon D7000.

wilsoncs3980 · May 23, 2011

I've always liked photography but just never spent the money on a decent camera. This weekend I bought myself a Nikon D7000 for my birthday and spent a few days playing with it just trying to learn what all the button's do. Here's a few of my first shots.

adversus · May 23, 2011

#1 is good. I like the composition, her skin seems slightly over-exposed though and the shadows on her face/eyes are not flattering. But outside, your lighting is limited, obviously.

#2 doesn't do much for me.

#3 is decent. As a general rule when shooting animals, it's good to get parallel to their eye level to avoid the "top down" look of a snapshot. Dog faces are hard to get in focus because of the long distance between nose-to-eyes.

Keep it up! The D7000 is a great camera, I love mine

wilsoncs3980 · May 23, 2011

Here's a few more. I bought 2 lens to go with it. The AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II & a AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G.

chaosrealm93 · May 23, 2011

congrats on the purchase

Ajlista · May 23, 2011

As for the first one on your second post. The baby's face is completely out of focus, im not sure if you were planning to just focus on her arm, but yeah.
The second on on that post dosent really do much for me either.
As for the first one on your first post, i like but agreeing with previous people, the skin is off
Good job though for your first few days
Lol i was NO WHERE near this
Congrats on your buy

2WheelPhoto · May 23, 2011

congrats!

wilsoncs3980 · May 24, 2011

yeah, it's out of focus, grabbed the wrong frame when I uploaded the picture. Also noticed that my buddy changed the white balance setting to pre and didn't put it back on auto when he was checking out my camera. I'm sure that didn't help anything. Thanks for the CC, Thats why I"m here.

wilsoncs3980 · May 24, 2011

Right now I'm trying to make sure I at least get the composition half way decent while I learn to get the right exposure. I do have a copy of photoshop cs2 and paint shop pro 8.0. I've never really gotten very good with using either. I'm going to take a photoshop class at the local college this summer. All their photography classes seem to be film photography though, is that common these days? They do have a couple of computer and digital classes but require the film classes as a prerequisites. Think I'll stop back at the camera shop and talk to the fellas there. I think they may have classes there.

PhotoTish · May 24, 2011

I prefer the first set. An excellent start if these are your first photos! Good luck with the new camera and happy Birthday :thumbup:

djacobox372 · May 24, 2011

Well the 50mm lens you bought is arguably the best lens nikon sells, in terms of optical performance. Great choice!!

AJRacca · May 24, 2011

Congrats on the camera and the two lenses. Can't wait to get mine. Can I ask, did you shoot in auto? Or did you make the right choice and stay off auto? Lol as they say the best way to learn is to stay off auto.

Raian-san · May 25, 2011

Congrats on the purchase, but all of those photos are out of focus.

wilsoncs3980 · May 25, 2011

AJRacca said:
Congrats on the camera and the two lenses. Can't wait to get mine. Can I ask, did you shoot in auto? Or did you make the right choice and stay off auto? Lol as they say the best way to learn is to stay off auto.

No, I haven't been shooting in auto mode. Most of my shots have been aperture priority mode. These are my first photo's with a digital SLR. I've got a couple cheap point and shoot camera's I've been playing with for a couple years. There are several different settings for the autofocus so I guess its not on the best setting for these types of photos. I'll be playing around with them to see what works best. I did buy a field guide for the camera but its pretty generic. I'm waiting on the David Busch's guide to come out at the end of the month.

subscuck · May 25, 2011

The first thing I noticed when looking at exif data, on the two pics that have it, is you're shooting with an aperture of 1.4 when using your 50mm. That's going to give you a razor thin dof, so it's not hard to see why your photos with that lens are oof. Secondly, no lens is at it's sharpest wide open like that. As you stop down, it will get sharper. Around 3.5 it should be acceptably sharp and give you more dof to work with and retain a blurred background.

Rather than a guide to your camera, if you haven't already done so, read a book about photography fundamentals. I'll recommend the proverbial "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. A camera guide book won't be of much use unless you understand the mechanics of photography.