Some C&C for a Noob :)

H4X1MA · Aug 11, 2011

I would like some C&C since I am rather new to all of this. As mentioned in another post, I bought my first cam (D3100)
around Febuary so i am still pretty noob. I recently discovered (yesterday) that I have my gamma settings on my
computer set to make all of my images look bright, so ever since I bought the cam I have unknowingly been making really dark images

This is a image is of an area that used to be a pond when I was younger. For some reason they drained it

Falls of Lana in VT. It's on the top 10 waterfalls to photograph in the Northeast I heard. 30 mins from home

I ask for C&C on this one because I was trying to do weird things with the rocks while still having the falls in
the background. I think it's kind of a fail though, foreground colors blew out big time.
Sharpened in PS using Lab color/Lightness/Unsharpen Mask 50, 50 0. I love the look that technique gives.

Can't beat a backyard snap. I used a photoshop effect I found online called Lomo on this one. I guess it was
a type of Camera a long time ago that was horrible, but when you used different developing techniques it would
have a really artistic effect. Not so much on this image, for this one it more dulled the colors and sharpened the detail.

Another backyard miracle. We had a Humming Bird come to our feeder every night and I sat there lens
hunting him for awhile. Minutes before "tripod hours" I managed to catch him perched in a tree above
the feeder. I might get this one blown up and printed to hang on the wall

Lake Bomoseen (VT) (m on the 3rd of July. There were fireworks over the left mountain but none got
high enough to grab a shot of. Although really dark (due to the monitor issue mentioend above

)
this is still one of my favs

earthmanbuck · Aug 11, 2011

#1 is nice, but it's way too white. I would maybe crop some of the sky out and/or fool around with colours (can't give you any specific instructions because I'm an idiot at post processing).

#2 - Yeah, the foreground is really blown out, but I don't know why you'd want a picture that's half close-up rocks and half waterfall. Is there a better place you could get a picture of the waterfall from? It looks like a really nice place to shoot, but the most interesting part of the picture is obscured by the rocks.

#3 is awesome, I love it. The only thing I don't like is the background; it's a little distracting. I know that's out of your control though...I know chipmunks don't take direction well.

#4 is nice, but there's so much going on that it distracts from the bird. It would have been nicer if the bird was on a single wire with nothing behind it, but again that's sort of out of your hands.

#5 is just boring to me. It's too dark or something. Longer exposure maybe? Take the picture earlier in the night? I'm not sure.

KmH · Aug 11, 2011

H4X1MA said:
I recently discovered (yesterday) that I have my gamma settings on my
computer set to make all of my images look bright, so ever since I bought the cam I have unknowingly been making really dark images

Your D3100 can display a histogram of each photo on the back LCD. That histogram can be used to verify you have made a good exposure, not to dark, nor to bright.

See page 101 and 130 in your D3100 user's manual.

And I recommend the following, 2-part tutorial: Understanding Digital Camera Histograms: Tones and Contrast
and here are all the rest of the good tutorials on that web site: Digital Photography Tutorials

H4X1MA · Aug 11, 2011

All of my pics so far have been in M mode, I never knew what the others really did and I didn't want to use the typical ones. Yesterday I read up a little on A and S modes and went out shooting today using those modes only. What a huge difference, which obviously means I am doing something wrong in manual mode. The A mode gave me a lot better sky color, not my typical blown out white sky garbage.

I knew there was a histogram but I never knew how to use it. I'll definitely give the tutorials a read