Just got my camera!! Beginner shots (help appreciated)

[rasheemo]

hey guys, i got my camera in 2 days thanks to UPS being freakin awesome (i chose just standard free shipping)


ok so here are some images i took along with my ideas about them and questions i have regarding some of the features... It's a canon XT with a kit lens...

All of these were done strictly in manual mode for the sake of education. In this shot i was experimenting with DOF by making the aperture as small as possible. For some reason though i can't manually set the Fstop as low as i want. Yes i can change it but sometimes i can set it lower than other times depending on lighting conditions. any ideas on this?

this is my first macro shot, i'm pretty happy with the results, although i don't plan on taking too many macro shots. I dunno if this is considered a good shot or not, so you can critique as you please.

this was another DOF experiment, i was aiming to make the further end of the frets blurry while making the closer part of the guitar in more focus. (i understand the composition isnt good with random things in the background, but that wasnt the purpose of the shot)

This is a fire hydrant near my house, i like its old battered rusty look. I REALLY would have liked it if the DOF was more narrow so i can blur everything behind it, but again i wasn't able to reduce the aperture under 5.6 i believe. no idea why... any insight would be great

thanks again guys!

 

[D40]

Kit lens is probably f/3.5-f/5.6 so wide open you can use f/3.5 but as you zoom in that changes till it reaches f/5.6 at which point it stops. You want a larger aperture (f/2.8, f/1.8, f/1.4 are great) for better DOF, also it depends on distance the object is from the background.

 

[rasheemo]

ooh so it depends on the zoom? so is it zoom in or out that lets me go larger? (f/3.5)

 

[tirediron]

ooh so it depends on the zoom? so is it zoom in or out that lets me go larger? (f/3.5)

Yes, and no. Yours is not a constant apeture zoom lens meaning that as the focal length increases, so does the minimum apeture. With the lens zoomed to it's widest setting, you have a minimum apeture of f3.5 and when it's zoomed to it's telephoto end, your minimum increases to f5.6. Because DoF changes inversely to focal length, even though you have a greater minimum apeture at the tele end, you may in fact have less DoF. Try backing up from the subject and shooting it at max tele, wide open. Bear in mind that no lens performs optimally wide open, and that you will likely see softer edges.

 

[rasheemo]

ok thanks! just to clarify, by wide open you mean zoomed out as much as possible right? (18 mm i think?). So if im far from the subject and zoom out and set aperture to 3.5 i can attain the narrowest possible DOF for the lens i have right?

thanks again

 

[tirediron]

'Wide open' refers to the apeture, NOT the zoom. If you're wide open, you're set to the largest (minimum) apeture (smallest number); f 3.5.

 

[rasheemo]

oh i see, so stand far, zoom all the way, aperture wide open.

any other critiques?

thanks again guys

 

[DanV1317]

actually, i think the one with the fire hydrant is really cool. For future referance, remember to try not to cut off the bottom of things. you cut off the bottom of the fire hydrant. Watch not to cut off people's arms, people's legs/feet and so (like the bottom of tires on a car) on when taking a picture. Capture the whole image, not just the top/bottom or side of it.

This doesn't apply allll the time, but most of the time. Sometimes you need to cut something out for a reason, but you can do that later when you crop if you need to.

 

[TNFlyBoy]

oh i see, so stand far, zoom all the way, aperture wide open.

any other critiques?

thanks again guys

I think it's the other way around, my D40 kit lens is f/3.5-5.6 and when i'm at 18mm (zoomed out all the way) it will go to f/3.5, zoomed in all the way (55mm) allows only as low as f/5.6

 

[andrew99]

The photos look good! When I first got my camera I spent a lot of time reading the manual and also reading online about exposure and stuff. I think understanding all that as early as possible will make it a lot more fun and less frustrating. And once you read something, go out and practice it! But it definitely sounds like you are on the right track!

 

[aramator]

the first one i think should have been taken verticaly and farther up. the flowers are great i think, needs alittle tlc in ps. the fire hydrant could have some of the right side croped out. good ideas though, remember im a beginer as well^^

 

[Joves]

I think it's the other way around, my D40 kit lens is f/3.5-5.6 and when i'm at 18mm (zoomed out all the way) it will go to f/3.5, zoomed in all the way (55mm) allows only as low as f/5.6

No it is 3.5@78mm and 5.6@55 and, it adjusts as you zoom if you start out at 3.5 @ 18mm or the other way around.