Just picked up the camera. Tips and critiques?

[SCullet]

Hey all,

I just picked up a Nikon D3100 today. I literally know next to nothing about photography but it's something that I've been really interested in for a long time. I went out and took a couple of shots on the tracks behind my apartment. I'd love to hear your overall impression, things that you would do differently, how you would edit the photos, etc. I'm looking to learn whatever I can.

 

[Warhorse]

I like #2 the best, the one with the tracks centered, and leading away to the curve to the right.

It is a great composition, but is a little over exposed for my tastes.

 

[SCullet]

Sorry, total newbie remember, overexposed meaning a little washed out? How would one prevent that? Shorter shutter speed?

 

[Designer]

Welcome to the forum! Don't worry about niggling details at this point. Just enjoy! If you think the shot is overexposed, you can simply work with the exposure compensation feature. A little bit of "minus" will probably satisfy Warhorse.

Meanwhile, I'm rather fond of #4.

 

[SCullet]

#4 is my favorite as well. This is my first DSLR, so these pictures today were more just to see what the camera itself and the two lenses I have can do. I didn't do any editing on the computer. Just curious to see what would happen when I point and shot in different ways.

 

[Derrel]

Excellent exposures in fairly tricky lighting conditions! For digital, the exposures look very good. Pretty decent framing for you being a newb and all!

One thing to note: these are all made in late afternoon back-lighting or side-lighting type conditions. Do you see how beautiful that type of lighting actually can be? Keep that in mind; that early-morning and late-afternoon "slanting sunlight" is absolutely beautiful on many subjects.

You are also doing something else that is a sort of 'secret' to many, and that is you are, as Doug Gordon preaches, "Shooting from the dark, and back INTO the light."

 

[robbins.photo]

Well your off to a great start it seems. I think #2 has the best composition, but #4 has the best lighting. One word of warning though, photography is much like the dark side of the force. Once you start down this path, forever will it dominate your destiny...

Rotfl

 

[SCullet]

Derrel,

I appreciate the kind words. I suppose those were all happy accidents, but valuable lessons.

Late afternoon by far my favorite time of the day as far as the lighting is concerned. There is something very calming and peaceful about the softness of the "slanting sunlight" as you put it, especially during the winter months (moreso than early-morning in my opinion).

I took a quick look through the gallery in your signature. I love your "Sun Rays" picture. If I may, how did you produce the effect of the rays shining through the trees like that? In my limited experience taking photos today, anything focused on the sun even a little blacked out the rest of the photograph.

 

[SCullet]

Robbins,

I think I know what you mean already! Beautiful wildlife photos by the way.

 

[Derrel]

Yeah, you're right...today here in the afternoon, we had some beautiful, slanting sunlight. "Sun Rays" was shot about 300 yards inland from the Pacific Ocean's shoreline, on a bright September afternoon, and the conditions were unusual; We had what I call ground fog, but the day was otherwise bright. The fog was very low to the ground, and for 100 miles inland, the day was sunny, bright, and clear, and I happened to walk into a small clustering of trees where foggy, mositure-laden ocean air was VERY close to the ground, but the sun was shining above, and through fog. So...you don't get that kind of light very often in most places. Me, Nikon, and 1/160s f/7.1 at 24mm ISO 200

 

[SCullet]

In case anyone was interested, here are a couple more from the day that I really liked.

 

[SCullet]

Derrel,

So not so much a trick of the camera as lucky weather circumstances. I'm trying to learn the terminology, f/7.1 is a relatively small aperture and a short shutter time correct? And then a low ISO would further reduce the amount of light?

 

[robbins.photo]

Robbins,

I think I know what you mean already! Beautiful wildlife photos by the way.

Thanks, I try to get a little better with each outing. Still tons to learn myself, but we're getting there slowly but surely.

 

[Derrel]

Yes, I would call "Sun Rays" very much one of those situations where photographers say it's mostly about ,"F/8 and be there," meaning the picture is more about the SITUATION than it is the guy shooting it. And yes, f/7.1 is a smallish aperture, which gives deep depth of field (plenty of in-focus from near to far) with the 24mm lens I was using. I had the camera's ISO set to 200, since it shoots pretty good at 200, and the 200 gives me one full stop "more" shutter speed than my camera's ISO 100 baseline setting, to prevent camera shake or wind motion blurring, or whatnot.

The thing with camera lens f/stops is that they can be though of as FRACTIONAL figures, for how wide the lens is open (meaning the actual width of the light-admitting hole, in relation to the length of the lens). Meaning that f/2 means the lens is open "1/2" way; f/4 would be one-quarter; and f/8 would be open only one-eighth of the way.

The shutter time of 1/160 second is I guess, relatively short, but not exceptionally short. I consider 1/160 second a marginally safe hand-holding speed. I consider 1/500 second to be "short". I consider 1 full second to be a slow shutter speed.

 

[robbins.photo]

Derrel,

So not so much a trick of the camera as lucky weather circumstances. I'm trying to learn the terminology, f/7.1 is a relatively small aperture and a short shutter time correct? And then a low ISO would further reduce the amount of light?

Aperture is measured in fractions, it's a measure of how big the opening of your lens is and how much light it's letting in - the numbers are actually fractions so the lower the number, the wider open your aperture is and the higher the number the smaller the opening and the less light it's letting in to the sensor.

A low aperture number lets in more light, however it also means less DOF - depth of field. This can be useful if your trying to seperate a subject from the background. The higher aperture number the less light you have to work with, but it also increases your DOF so objects that are closer or further away than your chosen point of focus will still be in focus.

Shutter speed measures how long the shutter stays open - which also affects how much light gets to the sensor. Slow shutter speeds will have the shutter open longer and let in more light, higher shutter speeds let in less light because the shutter is open for much less time. However higher shutter speeds have a couple of advantages in some situations, they make it less likely that your picture will be blurred by camera shake and they also allow you to stop a moving subject so it looks frozen without being blurred by motion.

Certain technologies, like VR (Vibration reduction) allows you to shoot at lower shutter speeds while compensating for camera shake.