What is vignetting?

[hamlet]

you get what you pay for
you can also save thousands of dollars by going to an 200 f/2 AI-S lens.

Its just an idle thought, a lens like this is wasted on me.

Practice.

You cannot become an instant pro just by buying a specific camera, or a specific lens.
Don't worry about what is out there, focus on what you have.

and

Practice

I realize that. An iphone user on this site posted pictures far beyond my capabilities. It was humbling. I finally understand the phrase: "the best camera is the one you have with you"

 

[astroNikon]

Do not fret on what you cannot do
Focus on what you can do and improve upon it.


I think your original post was a whiteout photo
you later improved that to be your hamsters playing, though out of focus
you later showed a building that was not sharp - probably due to your aperture setting.

So you are getting better. You just need to focus your energies on the camera. It is VERY HARD though as many concepts may not make any sense. That is why you need to do ONE thing at a time.

So .. force yourself to learn the exposure triangle better.

Ask for basic C&C, and take that info, go back, do the shot again but try to improve upon it based on what is said.

once you get your aperture settings all squared away
you can then get your shutter speed all squared away (or vice versa, or both)
then you'll understand the ISO better
(and cheat, put it in Auto and compare the settings)

that is the basic way I did it. Trying to learn "everything" all at once is too confusing.
Looking at better things out there confuses the "basic" knowledge that you need.

It has taken me a long time to get good photos in Manual mode - roughly SIX months

Practice builds Experience
Experience builds Confidence

but you have to do it one step at a time.
little hamster steps

 

[astroNikon]

Keep in mind, the iPhone is like using AUTO on your camera.
You'll have all the pictures come out if you use AUTO

but having the pictures come out as you want is, requires manual (or PASM) mode.
being "artistic" is another thing separate from the technical aspects.

 

[hamlet]

Thank you astro, that is good advice. Things have moved a bit beyond the basics for me.

 

[astroNikon]

Things have moved a bit beyond the basics for me.

But the basics are ALWAYS there ... in every picture. Unless you leave the lens cap on.

With that iPhone thread.
take the 1, 3, 5 ,8 pictures.
You should be able to make a better photograph than those. better colors, better details .. figure out how. It's all in your exposure triangle.

 

[amitchhabra]

It used to add or I would say to darken the image corners… now this has been done to create or to grab an attention to the subject.. what I mean to say is whenever u use or u see a vignetting done… the center of the picture grabs ur attention 1[SUP]st[/SUP] n not the corner area of it…
Sometimes it naturally occurs and some may create it.. if u wanna remove it when occurred naturally.. u can do it with photoshop or u can simply crop the image.

 

[Braineack]

Basically it means darkening of image corners and it is purposefully add in post-processing in order to the viewer’s eye away from the distractions in the corner.

you realize lenses naturally produce vignetteing, right?

 

[naturallymaternal]

Some vignetting looks really nice but a lot of the time, people end up doing it too dark and it's a tell-tale sign of a "new" photographer.

 

[480sparky]

................and it's a tell-tale sign of a "new" photographer.

Just like some people sign up for an internet forum, toss out a handful of meaningless posts without even reading the thread............. just so they can put their advertising in their signature?