My new D60, critiques please.

[eric-holmes]

I bought my new D60 today and I have been having some fun. I went ahead and got the kit from Best Buy that came with the 55-200 VR lens. I have had some pretty crappy weather today so I wasn't really able to get out and enjoy the camera. I did manage to snap a couple of pictures, critique them as you feel needed. Just keep in mind, they were my first pictures with this camera.

I thought this would be a cool picture. I wanted to capture the saw blade as the main focus of the picture with the tree still standing in the background. The only thing was I wanted the tree to be in focus too.

This was water pouring out of my gutter. I liked the way each drop is shown but I wanted the background to show too. The flash kept blacking out the background. If I took the picture with no flash the water was just kind of a blur.

This was my first try at a long exposure/low light picture. I don't have a tripod and couldn't hold my hand still lol.

 

[choudhrysaab]

1st shot is good but i'm not sure what i'm looking at. if you want a certain area to be in focus then try manually selecting the AF point in your view finder.
2nd shot started good (in focus) but then looks blurry towards the bottom
3rd shot is completely out of focus. colors are messed up as well.

 

[eric-holmes]

1st shot is good but i'm not sure what i'm looking at. if you want a certain area to be in focus then try manually selecting the AF point in your view finder.

It is a large piece of machinery they are using to cut down some trees at my house. I set the AF on the blade but I don't know how to have something in the background in focus too. Or if its possible.

I just thought it was an ironic picture.

 

[choudhrysaab]

you can't select more than one AF point (in manual mode) but what you can do is to set the F stop to a higher value so more area in the picture is focused on.

 

[BuZzZeRkEr]

Congradulations on your camera purchase!!

Looks like your well on your way.

In the water photo the reason why your background is blacked out because the light source is coming directly from your camera....really not much you can do about this unless you can bounce the flash off of other surfaces....or get an off camera flash OR take the water photo in direct sunlight without flash at a super high shutter speed to stop the action.

For long exposures your going to have to use a tripod...no other way around it. You might be able to get away with putting the camera on timer mode then laying on a flat surface like table or something. You also need to learn and play with your white balance settings in your camera settings.

 

[eric-holmes]

Thanks guys

 

[Samanax]

Digital Photography Tips For Beginners Be sure to read everything in "The Basics Of Exposure"...very important that you understand it.

Lens Aperture Explained – Exposure Triangle Part 1

Shutter Speed – Exposure Triangle Part 2

ISO – Exposure Triangle Part 3

Digital Photography Composition Tips

 

[AndrewK]

so helpful ^^^

 

[benlonghair]

1st shot is good but i'm not sure what i'm looking at.

It's the head of a feller-buncher, maybe a Tigercat. In the immortal words of the Police, "Dont stand, dont stand so, Dont stand so close to me."

 

[eric-holmes]

Thanks everyone, I will get to reading.

 

[syphlix]

if you want the whole thing in focus then use a smaller aperture

for the water pic if you want the background to not be blacked out by the flash, i think u can try shooting it from farther away and zooming in instead of being up close

 

[bigtwinky]

if you want the whole thing in focus then use a smaller aperture

And by smaller aperture, they mean a bigger number.
Smaller aperture means that the opening is physically smaller and to achieve this, you need to make the aperture value bigger.

f/2.8 > f/8 > f/22

When I first started reading on this, it took me a few times to get this. hehe