Gotta start somewhere.

[questor886]

Just picked up a Nikon D60 after getting bit by the photo bug. Here is one of my first pics. Comments are always welcome. Hope I do the link right.

1.

 

[davebmck]

It doesn't seem to be in focus. On a picture like this, you need a lot of depth of field. Shooting at a high f stop will give you better results.

 

[stsinner]

Tingle.... I hate heights!

 

[Jklersy]

Did you use a flash? The stairs in first row are a little flooded. I like what you have in mind though, and I hope you can go back and try some different shots there, very promising. Looks very wall worthy.

 

[KhronoS]

Did you use a flash? The stairs in first row are a little flooded. I like what you have in mind though, and I hope you can go back and try some different shots there, very promising. Looks very wall worthy.

I don't think it used a flash, seems that it's the light of the building.

 

[chrisburke]

you should centre yourself better... postion your camera so its centred with that little nub that is sticking out

 

[christm]

Can I ask, what exactly is ' F stop ' is in something about light or depth of field.

Thanks

 

[bigtwinky]

The f stop controls the size of your aperture.
The lower the number, the wider the aperture, the more light is let in, the shallower the depth of field.
These are the numbers that you typically see like 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, 16,22,...

 

[christm]

Oh right okay, Thank you very much.

So put simply the lens you buy has a range of F/Stops such as 1.4 to 2.8 (or what ever the figures may be). Do you change this on the camera?

 

[questor886]

Thanks for the ideas guys, I'm very new at this. I did use a more shallow fstop so that the background would blur a bit, but when I go back will use a higher fstop.
I did have the camera on shutter priority rather than ap priority, guess I should have tried both and manual as well. As far as getting a bit more centered I'll try but they have a large christmas tree in the very center of the ground floor.
I did not use a flash on this shot at all, didn't really think there was a need for it. When I get back to my hotel from work I'll post a few more shots from that same outing, I'm learning more and more about the D60 every time I pick it up.

 

[TamiyaGuy]

If you go back and use a larger F-stop, be warned that a smaller aperture also means a slower shutter speed. To me, that doesn't actually look like shallow depth of field or the photo being out of focus, to me it looks like motion blur. If you can, try putting the camera on a tripod and using the self-timer or remote release. Failing that, try and get your shutter speed above the focal length you're using e.g. if you use a wide-angle, 18mm lens, try and get it above 1/20s if you can.

 

[bigtwinky]

Oh right okay, Thank you very much.

So put simply the lens you buy has a range of F/Stops such as 1.4 to 2.8 (or what ever the figures may be). Do you change this on the camera?

Ranges typically can go from 2.8 to 32+ and yes, these are changed on the camera.

Higher end lenses will go lower than 2.8
Higher end zoom lenses will have a constant 2.8 (or lower) no matter how long of a focal lenght (zoom lenght) you are at.