Noob wanting some C&C! (Indoor, Outdoor)

[sierralima]

Hello all. Earlier this week, I received a Nikon D60 for Chistmas, with the stock Nikkor 18-55, as well as a Nikkor 55-200. I have always wanted to try my hand at photography, and have taken a couple shots here int he past few days.
I mostly use the NoFlash setting, with manual focus. I'm a little timid towards the Aperture & Iso settings, so I mainly leave it to the camera. Awful, I know. And I still need to get some sort of PhotoShop, because I know I need to remove most of the noise from the low-light pictures.
I know there are some phenomonal photog's on here, and I was just wanting some critique and perspective on my photos so far.
Please, don't dog on me. I am just asking for some feedback and constructive criticism.
Without anything further...

Any feedback is much appreciated!

_matt

 

[chrisburke]

word of advice, since your new... if you want CC.. only post 2 or 3 pics max.. and number them

 

[Samanax]

Also it's good to include the shooting information. I can view the exif with Opanda but others may not be using a exif reader.

Taking a quick look at your pictures and I like that you're trying all kinds of things with your D60 and are having fun. I can also see they you're fairly new to photography too. Your pictures aren't that bad...some are interesting (#2, #6 and #13) and some are just snap shots. Learn the basics of shooting (exposure, understanding light and composition) and your images will improve. You have a wonderful adventure in front of you.

 

[xtort-]

I think you have some good ideas, and are going to do well once you find some good subjects.

I understand your fear of shutter and aperture settings, but had you set the aperture in a few of your photos, I think they would have come out more as you had intended.

Go outside tomorrow and find a tree that is about 50 feet away from something. A fence, a house, whatever. Then go stand 50 feet away from the tree, and 100 feet away from the other object, so you are like this:

obj ------------50ft------------- tree ------------------50ft-----------------you

Put your camera in aperture priority mode, and set your aperture to the lowest number setting (which is called opening the aperture). Focus on the tree and take a few pics.

Then set your aperture to 12 or so. Focus on the tree again, and take some pics.

Look at your pics, specifically at the object in the background. In your first set of photos, the background is all blurry. In the second set, its more in focus.

That's all there is to aperture. It sounds scary, but it is just that simple. But, like everything, aperture has its drawback. As you close the aperture (higher number), you let less light into the camera, and therefore the shutter has to stay open longer to compensate.

The shutter numbers are simply seconds. 1/30 simply means the shutter stays open for one thirtieth of a second. If you changed that setting to 1/15, you let twice the amount of light into the camera, because you just doubled the amount of time the shutter is open for.

Hope this helps!