First shots with my D40x

BonzoHarry · Jul 2, 2007

This is my first SLR type camera, and I've had it for a couple of days and I wanted I'd get some criticism on a couple of the shots I've taken.

Sloss Furnace:

"Sloss Furnaces is a National Historic Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama. It was operated as a pig iron-producing blast furnace from 1882 to 1971. After closing it became one of the first industrial sites (and the only blast furnace) in the U.S. to be preserved for public use."

Two shots of vehicles:
my s6:

Some truck:

I'd be happy to hear where I can use some improvement.

Chris of Arabia · Jul 2, 2007

I wouldn't worry about improvement, you're far too good already...

...and welcome to the forum btw.

One quick tip, add a number before each shot, as it helps people reference them.

1. A good shot as it is. I'm curious about what's down the end of the tunnel though.

2. An interesting piece of equipment by the looks of it, but perhaps a longer focal length or getting in closer to it would have got you a stronger shot.

3. Probably the shot with most potential. It is underexposed though, probably due to the window at the back. If you get the opportunity to go back, there are plenty of details in there that you could isolate out.

4. Get that damned car out of the way and show us some more of that wall!

5. Another great shot. I would have loved the truck to have been about a foot further forward to get a small amout of light on the windshield.

newrmdmike · Jul 2, 2007

well, it looks like your off to a good start.

what i see that i would change
2. oversharpened
3.scrap that one, i barely see some equipment, a blown spot on the floor, no center of interest, unless its the window, in which case you should have just shot the window i think, because you have all that dead space around it.

otherwise they are all nice!

crownlaurel · Jul 2, 2007

I like #1. What was at the end of the tunnel? Is that a person?

In #3 I might crop off the dead space at the right (if you're wanting to keep the same diminsions, I'd shave it off the top).

I'm not a fan of a lot of car pictures, but the graffitti behind your car is really good. I have to wonder why some of the folks who do that aren't making money painting legitimate murals.

I do like the last photo. It made me laugh...looks like a funny old man smiling at the camera. Could it be "Mater's" cousin from Alabama?

BonzoHarry · Jul 2, 2007

The whole tunnel is like 800 feet long and at the end of my picture is the cart that hauls, whatever, to these giant roller coaster type lifts, that raise the, whatever, up a few hundred feet and drop it into some towers.

The 'person' at the end of the tunnel is actually a blue box just mounted on a poll.

The second one does look funny now that I get on a different monitor. I believe I sharpened it once, but I think you're right and I may have been better off not.

I saw the guys painting the wall and they had video cameras setup, I thought I remember seeing a web address on the wall, like graff-life.net or something. So maybe they did like a time-lapse video of them doing the wall. Compress the 6 hours down to 10 minutes, it'd probably look cool like that.

I appreciate the comments so far!

crownlaurel · Jul 2, 2007

Since you have ok to edit showing up now, I wanted to try a crop of #2... It's only a crop, nothing else done.

BonzoHarry · Jul 2, 2007

Think it's too much to go down a bit more and get the rest of the sunlight?

crownlaurel · Jul 2, 2007

I think this is better than the original crop. I personally don't have a problem with the light if that's what you want in the shot and I kind of like it with your new crop.

If you get the chance to reshoot, try some different settings to see if you can balance the natural light without losing detail in shadows.

(BTW, I am entry level, so nothing I say is to be construed as real advice...just things I'd probably try in your position).