My first attempt at photography

[jpenna]

Hey everyone...

I've been a videographer for a while, but I recently bought a Nikon D50 to test out photography. Here are some shots I took around the house/backyard when I first un-UPS'ed the camera

I know I still have lots to learn (reading the Nikon manual now), but does anyone have any suggestions?

1:

2:

3:

4:

 

[jpenna]

5 - one of my faves (he loves posing to the camera):

6 - he does get tired of posing, though... this one was more of a DOF test:

7:

8 - i like the droplets here, but I wish the stylus was a little more pronounced:

9 - note to self, water the flowers:

 

[jpenna]

10 - ugh, i hate spiders... one of my favorite shots so far, though:

11 - currently my desktop background:

12:

13:

14 - a little too busy:

15:

 

[TrickyRic]

Your nature shots are all fantastic. Great focus and vivid colours!

I feel you should be more aware of background in your first shots though. Taking the second shot for example, I see you've been quick to capture the pose of the girl and not allowed yourself time to align the background elements. The ceiling of the shop for example has some squre tiles that would look more photogenic if made parallel with the top of the image border. There's a similar 'tilt' in the next image too.

It takes a while to get used to taking both foreground AND background into account when setting a scene. We naturally prefer to focus only on the subject so it's a good habit to get into early on in your photography.

 

[jpenna]

Thanks Ric!

Ahh, I see what you mean about the backgrounds. I'll be more mindful, thanks

For the second shot, she turned around really quick, so I just put the camera up and snapped the photo without looking through the viewfinder. What sucks is that I really like her pose and don't hate the composition, but the focus is really soft (here's a larger version).

Maybe if I had the autofocus on, it would've been better. Since I'm coming from videography, I was bred to detest autofocus. The constant "searching" is really distracting in video, so you always just pull critical focus. I gotta learn to live with the autofocus (sometimes) on still photography, though, cause some of my shots have been decent but a little soft.

 

[TrickyRic]

I too started out with manual focus, probably because it felt a little unprofessional to use anything 'auto' to me. I must say though that now I know my camera, I do appreciate it's rapid auto focus.

 

[tirediron]

A prodigious offering! Welcome to the still side of things. I'll interpret "suggestions" as C&C, so
1. A nicely composed, moody portrait, but perhaps just a little dark, especially to the RH side. Perhaps a tweak of levels to bring it up about 1/2 stop.
2. Aside from the obvious focus issue, the main subject is a bit dark. A little selective lightening of hair would have helped. As an aside, be careful of taking this sort of photograph without permission. Many stores don't like this.
3. Comments per #1 and an echo of TrickRic's words about backgrounds. I think a little more of the main subjects face would help, and moving a bit more to your left would have eliminated the other person in the picture, who, while not in focus is clear enough to be distracting.
4. Background again, and also the edge of the newspaper box below and left is somewhat distracting. Perhaps clone this out in PP?
5. Nice, well composed, well exposed.
6. A test, 'nuff said.
7. I think either moving closer to the bloom and eliminating more background or a closer crop would help (I would suggest the former rather than the latter). Don't be afraid to have the petals "spilling" out of the frame.
8. A different position would have eliminated the large black area on the LH side, and DoF is a little off, as the bottom centre of the bloom is soft.
9. Again, positioning, and a somewhat soft focus.
10. Nice; a tighter crop might emphasize the spider more.
11. Nice macro, good exposure and composition, again a tighter crop?
12. Background
13. This is a composition issue; which is your main subject, the cone or the flowers? To me, they're fighting each other for attention.
14. Background as well as composition. I would suggest a close crop on the left-half of this picture.
15. Nice, good selective focus, ideal background. A crop to eliminate the spike on LH side is all it needs.
Okay, all of that negativity aside, there's nothing seriously wrong with any of them. Just a few minor things to keep in mind for you next attempt. As for autofocus, use it. It works; just make sure that you have what you want in focus.
All of the preceding has been my $00.02 worth; your opinion may vary.

 

[jpenna]

Thanks so much for taking the time to go through every pic, tirediron! :-D

"C&C"? Is that "comments and corrections", or something like that?


Some backcomments:
1. Agreed... a little too dark. I had a lighter (read: too light) version, but I felt it took away from the mood a bit.

2. Hehe - I got some puzzled looks from having a DSLR as bling, but the 19-year-old "managers" didn't seem to care enough to say anything.

3. Yeah, I wanted to catch him looking at her (then I could've titled the picture "unrequited love" or something ), but he's an always-pose-for-the-camera guy like most people.

4. Ah, didn't even see the newspaper box... good catch.

8 and 9. Hm, I meant to have that negative space there. Kind of like a "the lone flower" thing, or to juxtapose the blackness of the ground with the vivid color of the plant, or to get away from center compositions, or maybe to add a little more DOF. Guess it didn't work well...

13 and 14. These are unsalvageable.