New practice shots with the new DSLR. How did I do?

blackrose89 · Feb 10, 2012

Hey. I took my camera out and spent some time paacticing on a familiar subject. My animals. Nothing I'm particularly proud of, just trying to work on focus, exposure etc. The backgrounds are piss poor, I know that. I wasn't really trying to create strong pictures, just trying to get a feel for the camera and the settings. Here is what I have so far. All of these were handheld and shot int manual.

First of my outdoor dog photos

Some portraits

#1

DSC_0090 by blackrose1981, on Flickr

I feel like I missed the focus slightly here

#2

DSC_0091 by blackrose1981, on Flickr

These two were fun. I was trying to capture "motion". I put my dogs ball on top of the A/C unit to try to get him jumping. Don't think I caught it too badly for my first try.

#3

DSC_0196 by blackrose1981, on Flickr

I know for next time to get really low when capturing him jumping, because even though he is high off the ground, it's hard to tell from the angle I shot.

#4

DSC_0204 by blackrose1981, on Flickr

Two cat portraits. I was trying to properly expose the white fur. Not sure I got that. Although I feel like these two are nice and soft. Also I was trying to capture something specific about her. She is a very elegant, petite, and dainty cat and I was trying to capture that.

#5

DSC_0152 by blackrose1981, on Flickr

#6 Just a touch less exposed

DSC_0151 by blackrose1981, on Flickr

So here are some of the first practice shoots with this camera and my first DSLR. I know none of these are strong photographs, I was just trying to work on some particular areas. I'd love to hear how I did (no matter how bad LOL) and what to keep in mind for next time.

dxqcanada · Feb 10, 2012

The exposure in the dog pics are good ... and yeah, the focus seems to be a bit off on that one.

If you want to make the cat petite then get more surrounding or something to put a scale on the size.
The first looks like the better exposure.

blackrose89 · Feb 10, 2012

dxqcanada said:
The exposure in the dog pics are good ... and yeah, the focus seems to be a bit off on that one.

If you want to make the cat petite then get more surrounding or something to put a scale on the size.
The first looks like the better exposure.

Thanks, I liked the first one for exposure as well.

cgipson1 · Feb 10, 2012

hhhmmm... improvement... far beyond what I expected so early in your DSLR ownership!

Please post shoot data also whenever you post pics.... want to see what you are doing. Or even better, leave the Exif data in the photos....

Joel_W · Feb 10, 2012

Angel, as far as exposures are concerned, you seem to have that already down pat. Manual focusing was spot on in dog picture #1. I don't think that you blew the exposure of the white fur in the 1st cat picture, as it looks fine to me. Pic 5 just looks a tad better exposed then your adjustments in pic 6.

Crollo · Feb 10, 2012

This just looks like an annoying optical illusion.

LightSpeed · Feb 10, 2012

Sooo..................do you like this camera better than the bridge camera.........oh and did you shoot these in raw?
The answer to the raw question, is of course, no.

I'm right huh.

MTVision · Feb 10, 2012

FYI - in #3 your exposure compensation was at +2. Exposure compensation doesn't really do much in manual mode (or nothing you can't do by adjusting your settings). It's more or less for the priority modes when you don't have complete control over your meter/exposure. I know some cameras dont even let you set EC in manual mode - mine does though!

Great job so far though! Must be loving your new camera huh??

blackrose89 · Feb 10, 2012

LightSpeed said:
Sooo..................do you like this camera better than the bridge camera.........oh and did you shoot these in raw?
The answer to the raw question, is of course, no.

I'm right huh.

YEs, I love having full control!

As for shooting in raw, one step at time buddy lol.

I've read up a little on shooting raw. As far as I understand it, shooting RAW makes your file almost like a latent image, and it's your job to process it. Do you need special software to process it?

MTVision · Feb 10, 2012

blackrose89 said:
YEs, I love having full control!

As for shooting in raw, one step at time buddy lol.

I've read up a little on shooting raw. As far as I understand it, shooting RAW makes your file almost like a latent image, and it's your job to process it. Do you need special software to process it?

Photoshop comes with camera raw which is what you'd use to process RAW files.

blackrose89 · Feb 10, 2012

MTVision said:
FYI - in #3 your exposure compensation was at +2. Exposure compensation doesn't really do much in manual mode (or nothing you can't do by adjusting your settings). It's more or less for the priority modes when you don't have complete control over your meter/exposure. I know some cameras dont even let you set EC in manual mode - mine does though!

Great job so far though! Must be loving your new camera huh??

Yes!!! It's funny, looking at them again, I quite like the dog pictures. I know the backgrounds aren't super desirable, but it works for me :lol:

. Good to know though, thanks!

blackrose89 · Feb 10, 2012

cgipson1 said:
hhhmmm... improvement... far beyond what I expected so early in your DSLR ownership! Please post shoot data also whenever you post pics.... want to see what you are doing. Or even better, leave the Exif data in the photos....

Will do!

MTVision · Feb 10, 2012

blackrose89 said:
Yes!!! It's funny, looking at them again, I quite like the dog pictures. I know the backgrounds aren't super desirable, but it works for me . Good to know though, thanks!

I'm probably annoying you but....I can see your EXIF data!

To work on focus you should take it off AF-A. I think it will help and you'll see an improvement.

Af-a switches between single point focus and continuous. Which isn't a horrible thing but as we all know cameras can make mistakes.

Af-s is single point focus. So you choose the focal point and where to put it.

Af-c continuous can be for moving subjects - I think it will track your subject/focal point. Not 100% on what it does since I've never really used it.

You can use af-s for moving objects as well. I just think choosing one or the other is more accurate then letting the camera decide. I may be wrong though - it happens......a lot.

You can shoot RAW and JPEG. You don't have to choose one or the other. That's what I do. That way if you don't want to process an image you don't have to. It's helpful to have the RAW file though. RAW files look completely different then JPEGS. And it's always nice to have the RAW files if you ever want to go back to them.

So yeah photoshops camera raw will process raw files but so won't the software that came with your camera. Just be aware that RAW files look different depending on what program you use.

blackrose89 · Feb 10, 2012

MTVision said:
blackrose89 said:

Yes!!! It's funny, looking at them again, I quite like the dog pictures. I know the backgrounds aren't super desirable, but it works for me . Good to know though, thanks!

Click to expand...

I'm probably annoying you but....I can see your EXIF data!

To work on focus you should take it off AF-A. I think it will help and you'll see an improvement.

Af-a switches between single point focus and continuous. Which isn't a horrible thing but as we all know cameras can make mistakes.

Af-s is single point focus. So you choose the focal point and where to put it.

Af-c continuous can be for moving subjects - I think it will track your subject/focal point. Not 100% on what it does since I've never really used it.

You can use af-s for moving objects as well. I just think choosing one or the other is more accurate then letting the camera decide. I may be wrong though - it happens......a lot.

You can shoot RAW and JPEG. You don't have to choose one or the other. That's what I do. That way if you don't want to process an image you don't have to. It's helpful to have the RAW file though. RAW files look completely different then JPEGS. And it's always nice to have the RAW files if you ever want to go back to them.

So yeah photoshops camera raw will process raw files but so won't the software that came with your camera. Just be aware that RAW files look different depending on what program you use.