New to Photography

[Royal Photos]

Hi all, I'm new to the world of photography through the slr world. I've always loved taking photos but now I have a decent camera I'm REALLY getting into it. Eventually I want to deem myself a "professional" but have lots to learn. If I post some pics of where I'm at right now will you give me some feedback on what needs improvement? I'd appreciate it!

Secretly, I want to get into wedding photography and will be practicing those next month to see if I have any talent but any tips in that arena would be great as well.

I don't know much about photoshop besides adjusting the basics, I have no clue about layering and all that haha. :lmao:

 

[tron]

dude that last pic is for the motherbanging win

 

[Computer_Generated]

I agree the third one is the winner here, too bad the bottom part got cropped off or else it'd be perfect. The second one is too centered for my taste, the first one has great DOF and even though the subject's centered it seems to work for me... Just my opinions though.

 

[NikonNyc]

You are off to a good start thats for sure!

 

[Crazydad]

^^^ ditto. Well done.

 

[Royal Photos]

Thanks, anything I should improve on? Somethin I'm not paying attention to? Ideas for ways to improve when out taking pics?

 

[Crazydad]

In this series, the only thing I can think of is trying not to center your subjects. The easiest and quickest thing I was shown to make the pictures more interesting is to move your subject off center. It's known as the "rule of thirds".

Quick explanation: http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/rule-of-thirds/

 

[Royal Photos]

Like this?

How scary is manual mode? I do it sometimes but it's hard to get all the adjustments down since I'm so fresh. I almost need a cheat sheet on hand to know what to do. The hardest part is knowing when to use it I guess and lately most photos I've taken have made me happy in auto mode.

 

[Crazydad]

Like this?

Yeah, kind of like that. Of course, even though it is called the "rule", like anything objective, sometime you will think it works, other times you don't. Main thing it does for me is makes me really think about the composition before I take the picture.

How scary is manual mode? I do it sometimes but it's hard to get all the adjustments down since I'm so fresh. I almost need a cheat sheet on hand to know what to do. The hardest part is knowing when to use it I guess and lately most photos I've taken have made me happy in auto mode.

It can be intimidating that's for sure. If you do some research and reading on exposure and the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO and how adjusting 1 effects the others, it gets easier. Depending on what I'm shooting, I spend a lot of time in either AP mode (for shots like yours) or SP (kids sports). But lately, I'm trying to use manual more so I can better understand how changing things effects the picture.

The key is to learn to read your camera's meter and make the adjustments while looking through the viewfinder.