Friendly Hello and some beginner photos

[α300]

Hi everyone,

My name is Chris and I guess my user name tells it all....I own a Sony α300 dSLR. While the α300 is my newest tool, I'v been toying with photography for a few years now using various p&s cameras. Nothing serious....just taking photos of stuff that catches my eye.

Now that I have a dSLR I just might take photography up as an "offical" hobby.


Here are some of my beginner photos, hopefully I'll start to get better as time moves on and with C&C from TPF.

Cheers,
Chris S

 

[Samanax]

Hi and Welcome to TPF.

#1 - The berries (or whatever they are) are too centered. The one closest to the viewer should be in focus. Be nice if the leaves were more out of focus...or in focus. Was it too dark to take the picture with just ambient light? The on-camera flash shoots forward and tends to make things look flat. Image could use a little more contrast and darkened a bit.

#2 - Okay, don't think I've ever seen something like this...very different. Image seems soft and a little noisy. Watch the backgrounds...light pole. Could use a touch more contrast and sharpening.

#3 - Nice clean capture. I would crop out most of the sky so that the horizon line (nice and level) is 1/3 of the way down from the top. Then I'd crop off the sides and turn it into a vertical image.

#4 - I like how you got close to the urchin shell. It seems a little soft though. Wish the rock on the right wasn't there. It's slightly overexposed.

 

[α300]

Hi and Welcome to TPF.

#1 - The berries (or whatever they are) are too centered. The one closest to the viewer should be in focus. Be nice if the leaves were more out of focus...or in focus. Was it too dark to take the picture with just ambient light? The on-camera flash shoots forward and tends to make things look flat. Image could use a little more contrast and darkened a bit.

#2 - Okay, don't think I've ever seen something like this...very different. Image seems soft and a little noisy. Watch the backgrounds...light pole. Could use a touch more contrast and sharpening.

#3 - Nice clean capture. I would crop out most of the sky so that the horizon line (nice and level) is 1/3 of the way down from the top. Then I'd crop off the sides and turn it into a vertical image.

#4 - I like how you got close to the urchin shell. It seems a little soft though. Wish the rock on the right wasn't there. It's slightly overexposed.

Thanks for the feed back.

#'s 1,2&4 were taken with a old Canon SD1000, which has very limited settings and no aperture manipulation.

#3 was taken with my new α300 the first day I got it.

Is this more or less the idea behind the vertical image?