Sunrise - Practice for a new guy - C&C Please

[joshua_]

Hello, I read through a post by Overread about getting critiques and it's my plan to attempt this from time to time to learn from those who are willing to share on here.

I'm new to photography, but am very interested. I'm excited to learn. I've got 4 books to read to start and will move on from there when I can. I started with 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson and I really enjoyed it and feel like I learned a lot from it. I have not had a chance to put much of it into practice yet, but I will get out as often as possible and practice. So far the second book is not nearly as interesting as that first one was, but I'll get through it and then onto another. So far I am referring back to 'Understanding Exposure' a lot.

These first pics are nothing special, but were just to get me started on here and also just to get out and get started practicing. I have a bunch of things in mind to get to asap to get some (hopefully) interesting photos. I really want to practice all sorts of photography.

I went over to a local park this morning and took these photos from a tripod. I'm using a Nikon d3200 and these photos were each with the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G. So far all of my attempts are in manual mode. I tried a couple of ISO settings and a good number of different aperture/shutter combos. These photos below were my favorites of the bunch. I've though about trying some of the other modes, besides manual, but so far they actually seem more complicated to me than manual mode. I've got a lot to learn, but for now I think I'm going to try and stick to manual until I can learn how some of the other modes may help me out in certain situations. I have a graduated ND filter on the way that I hope to make use of to help with these sorts of pics. I read about putting them together on the cpu, but I'd also like to try with the filter. I got the B&W 502 to start with.

What I was looking for with the shots..... was mostly practice with the camera and the sunrise. It all happened a little quicker than I thought it would so I ran out of sunrise faster than I thought I would. I meant to have a chance to try another lens. I was attempting to silhouette the trees to add to the sunrise. I wanted to catch some of the great colors and clouds.

What I would do next time.... is try the graduated ND filter and try some shots with another lens as well. The grass is all dead and ugly so I would get less of the ground in my photos next time if I use the graduated filter where the ground cover would be exposed properly. I'd also like to get out to an area that has some interesting material for the photo. This park I used is just close and convenient for practicing. Next time..... I'd also like to try any suggestions yall may have that can help me out from where I currently am in this process. I hope I gave yall enough info to be able to help me out and if not just let me know and I'll provide any other info I can.

Thanks to anyone who has some time to C&C.

Image 1 - f/22, 1/8, ISO-200


Image 2 - f/22, 1/13, ISO-200


Image 3 - f/22, 1/12, ISO-200

 

[bobandcar]

I am no expert. I like 3

Maybe change ISo to 100 f11

 

[AgentDrex]

Welcome to TPF!!! I hope you have lots of fun here and learn quite a bit.

Number 3 is the winner for me as well...I believe its because it lacks the amount of silhouette at the bottom that the other two have and that much darkness doesn't lend itself to the photo much. Just dead space. But number 3 has just the right amount. Keep going. You'll do wonderful very soon. Like bobandcar mentioned, open up the aperture more so you set a higher shutter speed...this may be of some help: http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/technical/diffraction.html

 

[DannyLewis]

There all good but #3 is really cool....

 

[SCraig]

I agree, #3 is the best.

Sunsets and sunrises are hard to mess up because if they are overexposed it just looks lighter and if they are underexposed they just look darker. When shooting sunrises or sunsets you can effectively extend the time you have by intentionally underexposing the shot. As it gets lighter, just keep increasing the underexposure.

People are always wanting to "Go Somewhere" to take photographs. I'm as guilty as anyone. In reality you don't have to go anywhere because I guarantee that wherever you are sitting right this minute there are hundreds of interesting shots right there. You just aren't seeing them yet

 

[AgentDrex]

hear, hear SCraig...thank you for sharing that bit of wisdom!

 

[joshua_]

Thanks for the help so far yall. I really appreciate it. I'll keep on working.

I do have a lot of places I want to go to photo, but haven't given my immediate surroundings much thought. I'll try to open up my thinking a little.

I'll take on something more challenging (or less forgiving) soon.

Thanks

 

[AgentDrex]

Oh man...I cannot wait to see what you come up with! Looking forward to seeing more of your progress.