Just started out today. Some pointers would be appreciated!

[Ziffy]

Hey guys! I just purchased a Nikon D40 today and took it for a go. This is my first foray into photography and I'm really enjoying it so far

Since I'm new however, I know there are certain things I could very well be doing incorrectly or might be missing some things that would make the photos stronger.

Compliments and Criticism are welcome.

I was testing the camera's color filters.

A neat frog ashtray -I think- that has been in the house forever.

Dog.

Brightened it up to make it less gray. I found this more attractive.

Cool lights. I decided to attempt and make it look as if they were actually
turned on and shining in this picture, so I made it black and white and gave
it that yellow color.

Loose change.

I hadn't done any black and white outside of this; I figured I'd give it a go.

Thanks for looking! Tell me what to fix/keep doing. I really dont know the technical jargon, I just go with the flow and mess with the camera's manual settings to figure out what everything does.

 

[ANDS!]

First and last are cool; those would go in a keeper pile. The rest are good attempts at getting familiar with your camera. Last one though. . .next time try to get your subject level, even if it means composing so that the foreground elements are removed from the shot.

 

[saings]

i like the light, i dont know why but i keep finding myself going back to it. theres just something interesting about it. i think it would look really nice if you do a evening/night shot with a slow shutter speed so the light would really glow.

 

[Ziffy]

All right Saings, I'll try that. The light is probably my favorite too

Also: ANDS!, could you elaborate on that last bit? It's a tad ambiguous to me.

 

[MiaS13]

the first and last one have really nice depth of field. the rest are ok, the dog one is no..sorry its a dog through a fence not really interesting

 

[LaFoto]

The first is nice. Crisp subject (in both meanings, also focus-wise), but very centrally composed. I'm not too fond of that.

The frog ashtray doesn't do anything for me. Not the least bit. All I can think about that subject is that I'd give it away as one of the first things to give away at a "Jul Club" party... Don't think the brightly white background and very shallow DOF help the PHOTO of this ashtray a lot, either...

The dog photo has its fur severely blown, but it WOULD work if you cropped it vertically, getting the bars to be a "frame within the frame", which would eliminate the all superfluous part on the left AND the blown-out fur on the right.

The "Garden Art" has way too many blown out areas for my liking, although you created just that aspect all on purpose, you say. Well. Not for me... And I don't know what I'm looking at and am meant to appreciate at all.

I find the garden light too tightly framed. It's poorly composed to my mind, and therefore nothing saves it for me, no selective colouring nor anything.

The photos of the coin look like test shots of open aperture in lamp light only... The first of the two doesn't seem to be sharp ANYWHERE (camera shake?), and the second is nice, also nicely contrasted, but the all blurred coins in the foreground are not helping.

 

[fwellers]

What lens are you using to get such a shallow depth of field in these pics ?

 

[Samanax]

What lens are you using to get such a shallow depth of field in these pics ?

Most of these pictures were shot at 55mm @ f/5.6 (lamp was shot at 45mm @ f/9.0) making me think it's the kit lens. To get the shallow DOF he's getting he's probably shooting fairly close to the subject.

DOF is affected by aperture, focal length, distance between the camera and the subject and distance between the subject and the background.

 

[Ziffy]

Thanks for the comments.

LaFoto, that's a great idea! I should have thought of that; it would look much better that way as opposed to the way I did it.

Fwellers: It's the kit lens. I don't know if you inquired what kind of lens I was using in a good way or bad way though.