New here.

ReFlect · May 7, 2008

Wanted to post some recent shots I got at the Seaport in Long Island City, New York.

I'm a beginner and only been into this since June of last year. Started out with a Nikon Coolpix P1 and around January I got a Nikon D40.

Well enough of the talk, here they are (Really needing tips, criticism, etc. Whatever you got):

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

dylj · May 8, 2008

1. Nice God clouds capture. The grayish-blue is a nice color.
2. What the first one lacks in creativity this one has in spades! I really like his. You might want to try cropping it at different places. From the left and from the top, for example, so that only the edge of the silhouette is showing.
4. This one has a very foreboding look -- haunted hotel status. I like it. The darkness of the shadows goes a long way.
5. Nice skyline! Great composition. Noise is visible on the clouds though. I'm assuming this was handheld?

ReFlect · May 8, 2008

Thanks a lot. And yes #5 was handheld. If I had the chance I would've taken my tripod with me that day.

WDodd · May 8, 2008

3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 look like perfect candidates for HDR.

dslrchat · May 8, 2008

Welcome to TPF
Nice shots you have there!

Mav · May 8, 2008

Great shots! The biggest suggestion I'd make is that you don't need to be shooting at 1/125s in marginal light at f/4.5 and 18mm. That pushed your ISO up to 1600 and brought a lot of noise into your photos unnecessarily. At 18mm you should be able to get sharp shots off at just 1/15s. Just take a few and pick the sharpest, or shoot at 1/30s. And don't be afraid to shoot at full aperture of f/3.5. That would have brought your ISO setting down from 1600 to 200-400 which would look much much better and cleaner too. Shots look great though. You have a good eye.

And welcome aboard!

asfixiate · May 8, 2008

Mav
How are you able to figure out by looking at the picture that it was shot at 1/125? Are you downloading and looking at the information or a robot?

Early · May 8, 2008

Good composition on #7. Too bad it isn't lit up like #8. That might have been awesome.

SBlanca · May 8, 2008

asfixiate said:
Mav
How are you able to figure out by looking at the picture that it was shot at 1/125? Are you downloading and looking at the information or a robot?

look at the EXIF

about the photos, they look good congrats, the noise is a bummer...you could try Neat Image, good program to reduce noise..and learn from mistakes

asfixiate · May 8, 2008

re: EXIF. Thanks. I didn't even think of downloading the image and finding that.

Nice shots by the way.

Mav · May 8, 2008

asfixiate said:
Mav
How are you able to figure out by looking at the picture that it was shot at 1/125? Are you downloading and looking at the information or a robot?

No just a browser plug-in for Firefox that lets you right-click to grab EXIF info from photos.

asfixiate · May 8, 2008

good ole firefox.

ReFlect · May 8, 2008

Mav said:
Great shots! The biggest suggestion I'd make is that you don't need to be shooting at 1/125s in marginal light at f/4.5 and 18mm. That pushed your ISO up to 1600 and brought a lot of noise into your photos unnecessarily. At 18mm you should be able to get sharp shots off at just 1/15s. Just take a few and pick the sharpest, or shoot at 1/30s. And don't be afraid to shoot at full aperture of f/3.5. That would have brought your ISO setting down from 1600 to 200-400 which would look much much better and cleaner too. Shots look great though. You have a good eye.

And welcome aboard!

This is what I was really looking for. I'll keep in mind to take more shots under different settings for the best results and just keep switching things up for the best shot. Thanks Mav.

(By the way - 1, 2 and 7 were taken from the car I was in.)

And thanks a lot to everybody else. If anybody would like to see more stuff I got I'd be more than happy to post it and welcome the criticism.