New to photography

[nmoody]

Hello all!


I recently have entered the world of photography with just a basic point and shoot knowledge of cameras. It sure is much more complex and exciting that I thought it would be playing DSLR's. You can really fine tune so many attributes on these DSLR cameras, it is also very daunting for a new person entering this hobby with minimal prior experience.


I have been doing a lot of research on photography, learning about the basics so I could make an educated decision on what camera to get. One of the best most honest and fruitful sources I found was this forum, so thank you all very much! With my budget set and very basic knowledge acquired I narrowed it down to two cameras. The Canon T3 and the Nikon D3100.


I ended up deciding on a Nikon D3100 with the 18-55mm kit lens which arrived a few weeks ago. Other than the camera all I have is the standard cheap Nikon bag to hold it and a 16GB class 10 card.


Currently I am working on playing and understanding what I have first before I buy any more equipment. I am about 1000 pictures in so far and am very please with the results of this camera/lens, it takes such nice pictures! I picked up the Dummies book for the D3100 just to have an easy read of the features and explain some of the photography lingo to me. Once done with that I will start on Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and the Digital Photography series by Scott Kelby. Thanks again TPH for these suggestions I cant wait to dive into them.


Here are some of my favorite images I have taken so far, I know I still have a lot to learn:


1.

This one was taken at a japanese friendship garden near my apartment in San Jose CA. I liked the color in the photo but was a little disapointed in the washed out bush in the lower right.


2.

This was at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monerey, CA. I was very happy to see this one came out reasonable well becuase it was behind glass. The scratches and children finger prints didnt show up as much as I thought they would.


3.

This was at Vesona Lake park in Los Gatos, CA. A very early picture I took which was completely beginers luck.


4.

This was was at the japanese friendship garden near my apartment in San Jose CA. I ended up laying on a bench looking up to get the shot.

 

[BastiaanImages]

Welcome to the forum. Enjoy!

#3 would have been better if the berries (or whatever they are) weren't cut off, but i like the DoF

 

[nmoody]

Thanks for the feedback! I might go see if I can recreate that photo and have more of the berries in view.

 

[MLeeK]

Welcome! You are doing exactly what you should be doing! And it looks like you're having fun doing it too.
Really like the first two. The third is kind of... unsure of what it wants to be? For lack of better term...
4th one I totally missed the boat on. Sorry... I can't even figure it out.
You're doing great! Keep going!

 

[jasonkip]

Hey there, great introduction post. Just wanted to say I like #4, at first I thought "jellyfish". #1 does have great color like you said and I bet you'll soon figure out how to help that bush, it sounds like you're learning lots!

 

[nmoody]

Thanks again for more feedback!

MLeek:
3 is just my first attempt at a little bokeh, though turned into a lot. It a test in focusing and settings for me.

4 was this beautiful tree where its branches were bare and ended in bush like pom poms. Here is a normal shot of the tree though not that good:

jasonkip:
I plan on getting some photo editing at some point to try and fix things like this. It will probably be either Capture NX2 or Elements 10 as I just cant justify CS5 for personal use. I don't have any experience with photo editing so I am concentrating on camera work first then onto editing.

 

[Trever1t]

welcome from another San Jose member!

 

[michaeljamesphoto]

Welcome!
Like you, I started out a while ago with a DSLR (Nikon D90) and taught myself how to use it through playing around with it. You said you've been doing research, which is exactly what I did as well. I believe it would be helpful to read into composition, because I can see composition beginning to happen in your sample photos, and I can tell you can improve quite easily through some simple reads. I believe when I first looked into composition I found a site similar to this one 10 Top Photography Composition Rules | Photography Mad
Of course, these are not "rules" in the true sense of the word, and can quite successfully be "broken."

One major compositional element that really helped my photography in school was regarding tangency. Basically, this deals with lines and elements of your photograph intersecting, like the berries being cut off by the frame. A lot of times when these occur with elements within your frame, it can cause the photo to feel "off" though it's hard to place why, until you understand tangency.

Hope this helps!

 

[designerfoo]

I like #2 and #4, I second the opinion that if the berries or fruits in the #3 weren't cut off it would have been an awesome image! Awesome use of DoF!

 

[nmoody]

Thanks Trever1t!

michaeljamesphoto: Thanks for the reassurance and feedback. Yeah composition is one of the things I have not touched on yet in my research and learning. Bookmarked that page and will be reading when I get time.

designerfoo: Yeah I really need to go redo that shot with everyone's feedback. Maybe I can try tomorrow.