My first attempt at photography & Aperture

[dodge1]

Hi all. Bought my first D-SLR just over a month ago and have been playing around trying to learn how to use it! Anyway, I've taken a few snaps and have adjusted a few with Aperture (had that about 4 days).
All shot with a Nikon D5000 with Nikkor 18-55mm lens
So here are my first attempts:

1.

This was shot on an off chance. I had to brace it on a railing. I kinda liked the layout of the pic.

2.

Adjusted in Aperture (1st attempt)

3.

4.

5.

6.

lightened in Aperture

7.

8.

9.

Skating pics were all done in Aperture too.

Sorry pics are a bit small. Struggling to work out how to change the sizing when uploading them.

Comments please, good or bad!

 

[DanFinePhotography]

these are pretty good, the last one of the set is the best of the bunch IMO. Never really messed around with Aperture software so i cant really give you any pointers there. Keep taking pictures :thumbup:

 

[benlonghair]

First one needs to be leveled. It's distracting that I feel like I have to tilt my head to see it right. Overall it just doesn't do it for me. What's the subject?

Car pics. For the most part the car is under exposed. You need to add light to the car to balance it with the background. The ones with the blue lights have potential but again there's something weird going on with the angles. I don't know if I'm seeing distortion or if the angles are just not straight. The last car pic looks oversaturated on my monitor and over processed in general. There's no definition to the car. Basically they all need light.

Not a big fan of the skating shots. Needs a longer lens and a faster aperture to separate the subject from the background. I don't like the pp on the last one. Over done.

 

[misstwinklytoes]

You have too many pictures to comment on. Most people won't C&C this many. Just wanted to let you know for future reference.

 

[timlair]

1. Number your pics for quick reference.
2. Split em up over a week or so in a few different posts.
3.
A. SO much potential in that shot. But a few pointers, Less foreground, straighten it up, and zoom in/crop a little more. And play with the exposure until its just the way you like it.
B. The second RSX pic is a good angle and has good composition but it is underexposed.
C. The last RSX pic is the best of the car pics IMO but its a tad crooked? Or maybe thats just me.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Raian-san]

Things I wanted to say has been said but just to add a few. The 1st picture is really off focus. I don't really know what's the main subject because there's so many in the picture and a lot of them are off focus that's giving most of us a headache.

The cars pictures, most of them are ordinary. The first one has potential with the setting but it's still a little above ordinary. The skaters, well most of them seems to be in weird position. My favorite is the last picture because it have great background with beautiful colors.

My advice would be in picture #1 is if you want to take landscape at night that close and want to include everything is to focus in on what's in front of you and blur the rest. Either that or go further away and include everything in a distance because all those lights are scattering all over the place and we don't know if it's landscape shot or just a bunch of lights. If you stand on top of the edge toward the right, and just snap everything from the middle on and exclude the first few house in the front will give you a much better shot.

 

[dodge1]

First one needs to be leveled. It's distracting that I feel like I have to tilt my head to see it right. Overall it just doesn't do it for me. What's the subject?

Car pics. For the most part the car is under exposed. You need to add light to the car to balance it with the background. The ones with the blue lights have potential but again there's something weird going on with the angles. I don't know if I'm seeing distortion or if the angles are just not straight. The last car pic looks oversaturated on my monitor and over processed in general. There's no definition to the car. Basically they all need light.

Not a big fan of the skating shots. Needs a longer lens and a faster aperture to separate the subject from the background. I don't like the pp on the last one. Over done.

I'm not sure by what you mean 'whats the subject'. Is that what the main feature of the pic is? I'm a proper noob at this, I'm not being funny!

How would you add light to the car. With the flash on, the background goes super dark or do you mean add it in PP?

I'll try some different angles with the car pics. Do you think if they were cropped or straightened it could correct/improve them?

I'll try your recommendations on the skating pics.

Thanks for your input

 

[dodge1]

You have too many pictures to comment on. Most people won't C&C this many. Just wanted to let you know for future reference.

Ok thanks, just thought I'd put up what I'd done so far but that's cool if that's how everyone works.

 

[Petraio Prime]

If you want to see the effects of changing apertures, put the camera on a tripod, arrange objects in front of the lens at varying distances, and change the aperture from largest to smallest, and take a photo at each aperture.

 

[dodge1]

1. Number your pics for quick reference.
2. Split em up over a week or so in a few different posts.
3.
A. SO much potential in that shot. But a few pointers, Less foreground, straighten it up, and zoom in/crop a little more. And play with the exposure until its just the way you like it.
B. The second RSX pic is a good angle and has good composition but it is underexposed.
C. The last RSX pic is the best of the car pics IMO but its a tad crooked? Or maybe thats just me.

Keep up the good work!

Just numbered them

With the last Teg pic, I thought it was straight as the brick structure on the right is straight/upright or should the car be straightened and not worry about the stairway?

Thanks

 

[OrionsByte]

If you want to see the effects of changing apertures, put the camera on a tripod, arrange objects in front of the lens at varying distances, and change the aperture from largest to smallest, and take a photo at each aperture.

The "Aperture" he's referring to is a software program for tweaking RAW files from a digital camera. Doesn't make the advice any less sound, but you are mistaken as to what the OP was referring to.

 

[dodge1]

Things I wanted to say has been said but just to add a few. The 1st picture is really off focus. I don't really know what's the main subject because there's so many in the picture and a lot of them are off focus that's giving most of us a headache.

The cars pictures, most of them are ordinary. The first one has potential with the setting but it's still a little above ordinary. The skaters, well most of them seems to be in weird position. My favorite is the last picture because it have great background with beautiful colors.

My advice would be in picture #1 is if you want to take landscape at night that close and want to include everything is to focus in on what's in front of you and blur the rest. Either that or go further away and include everything in a distance because all those lights are scattering all over the place and we don't know if it's landscape shot or just a bunch of lights. If you stand on top of the edge toward the right, and just snap everything from the middle on and exclude the first few house in the front will give you a much better shot.

I should be going back there so I'll take another shot.

Thanks for everyones feedback.

 

[Petraio Prime]

If you want to see the effects of changing apertures, put the camera on a tripod, arrange objects in front of the lens at varying distances, and change the aperture from largest to smallest, and take a photo at each aperture.

The "Aperture" he's referring to is a software program for tweaking RAW files from a digital camera. Doesn't make the advice any less sound, but you are mistaken as to what the OP was referring to.

Never mind. -

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/EMILY%20LITELLA.jpg

 

[macrojunkie]

I really like #7, but that's just me.

 

[benlonghair]

I'm not sure by what you mean 'whats the subject'. Is that what the main feature of the pic is? I'm a proper noob at this, I'm not being funny!

How would you add light to the car. With the flash on, the background goes super dark or do you mean add it in PP?

I'll try some different angles with the car pics. Do you think if they were cropped or straightened it could correct/improve them?

I'll try your recommendations on the skating pics.

Thanks for your input

Subject. Why did you take the photo? What was your intent? Was there something in the scene that the viewer was supposed to be drawn to? Were the clouds special? There's some reflections on the water. Those might have been cool to see more of. Bright stuff in the foreground. There's many reasons why it doesn't work for me.

Light. Well, I'm specifically looking at #2, 4 and 5. Four is probably the best example. Your background is well exposed. The highlights right above the car are bright but not pure white. It graduates nicely to almost black.

Your camera's kinda dumb. It averages the scene. In this case, most of the frame is the background, so it's mostly getting a reading from that. The problem is that the car looks underexposed. If you expose the car correctly, the background is going to be overexposed. Therefore you need to add light to the scene, either through continuous lights off to camera right or off camera flash.

I would recommend, if you haven't already, either borrowing or buying a copy of Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and reading it a couple times. Looking at the EXIF on your photos, you shot the skater shots at ISO 1800, 1/3200, f/7.1. You could have dropped down to f/4.5, dropped your ISO down one stop and gone to 1/4000 and maintained your exposure. That would have helped reduce your depth of field and make your subjects pop more. A longer lens also helps with this.

If you have no idea what I just said, you need to read that book.