New to photography, taking all advice to get better :)

[Seventen]

Hello,

I am a new to this site and photography, The main reason I invested into a DSLR was for imaging the sun through a telescope but have become quite fond of taking pictures of scenes involving the sun and just quite random things. Also with photography I dont have to count on weather being perfect to go out.
I have a couple of questions here one is how good is the nikon 55 - 300mm for a amateur on a low budget to get photos of wildlife? low budget really means only 250 euro. This is a hobby i want to take serious but its not really something i can invest a lot into.

Second question is about this photo I have linked I really want to progress to a semi pro level one day and I think the only way I can do this is from negative feedback. Good feedback is good too but like a lot of my pictures of the moon and sun I post on facebook friends and family only give one answer. Great pic Pat! thats not really that useful advice to someone trying to get better.

Settings used:
Nikon D5100
f/10
1/400sec
ISO-125
Exposure bias -1 step
Focal Length 46mm
Metering mode Pattern
Contrast Normal
Exposure program Normal
Saturation Normal
Sharpness Normal
White balance Auto

Just listed all the settings I am very sure the settings I have used are terrible as I really have no idea of what settings to use I have read pages but they all vary so much I have just decided to play about with settings until I see something I like.
Thanks in advance for any advice and look forward to seeing some comments.

 

[ronlane]

Welcome to the site. I can not give you good feedback on the Nikon gear.

I will say that the photo is not that bad. Without fill flash to bring out detail in the plants, this is going to be a sillouette. The settings seem reasonable for what I would do with my canon. I would have probably metered for the sky just left of the sun and went from there.

Look forward to seeing more of your work.

 

[Seventen]

Thanks, I should have mentioned I was attempting a sillouette, I do have a quite a fascination with the sun and all solar weather.So I like to try and play about with the plants and trees with sun behind or with reflections in the water. Pictures at the moment seem quite repetitive but am looking forward to sharing more with this community.

 

[Seventen]

Went away camping in Rauma, Finland, and got some new pictures thought I would put one here to share and get advice on what i done wrong with it.
settings used was:
F/5.6
1/800 sec
ISO 320
focal length 50mm
metering mode Patterned
White balance Auto
Taken in manual mode

10.7.2013 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[The_Traveler]

It is a reasonably done silhouette.
The only issues I have is the composition which places the center of interest directly in the middle; that is typically a composition no-no and is done almost always with symmetrical objects.
That's not a RULE rule but images look better when the centers of interest are at the thirds.

 

[Seventen]

Thank you, I have heard of this rule in models did not know was the same with everything else. This is very good to know.

 

[Stevepwns]

My level of skill is not high enough to speak on the technical aspect, but as an artist, I like it a lot.