Would love any advice!

[Kaytlin]

Yes, I see what you mean. I like to get them before the sun is all the way down, so instead of the sky changing color, the couds turn a beautiful shade of pink or orange!

 

[Compaq]

I prefer shots with a burning sky and nice coloured clouds.

 

[davo]

I have a Panasonic Lumix P&S (TZ15) and sadly it takes better photos than my D90. It reproduces colours effortlessly and almost perfectly. The D90 is always a little washed out (colours), but that's because I've only had it a few weeks and I'm still practicing with it. I'm not bombing the thread, just trying to say that a P&S is always a great place to start and practice with.
Then again, I am a beginner myself in regards to photography. So feel free to correct me.

 

[Kaytlin]

No I agree, point in shoots are great as long as you dont mind not being able to have much control over your settings. I would really like to have control over my aperture and shutter speed, but I cant on my P&S, though I can change ISO, but that doesnt do much when you cant change anything else. My Macro setting is also very bad, I have to go to the "cuisine" setting to get good flower shots hahaha. But I agree, they do take some nice pictures sometimes if you know how to work with them.

 

[Gaerek]

Kaytlin, you are already ahead of the curve of a lot of even the "pros" here. It's great that you're willing to take the intiative and learn things on your own. Keep that up and you will do fine. Here's an exercise I used to do when I was learning. Go somewhere (Park, backyard, town square, whatever, doesn't matter, just make sure it's a relatively smallish area, so you're not too overwhelmed) and start shooting. Find subjects to shoot, and shoot them. Shoot different things in different ways. Try different compositions. Follows rules of compositions on one shot, then break them on the next, and compare and see what happened, and try to ask yourself why one looks better than the other. Set a time limit (20 minutes, half hour, hour, whatever) and as soon as it's over, go load your photos in your computer and try to critique them yourself. Don't expect to have anything great. Remember, this is about learning. Figure out where you made mistakes, so you won't make them again. Find out what worked, so you can keep doing it. I always had a fun time when I did this and I think you might enjoy it also.

I have a Panasonic Lumix P&S (TZ15) and sadly it takes better photos than my D90. It reproduces colours effortlessly and almost perfectly. The D90 is always a little washed out (colours), but that's because I've only had it a few weeks and I'm still practicing with it. I'm not bombing the thread, just trying to say that a P&S is always a great place to start and practice with.
Then again, I am a beginner myself in regards to photography. So feel free to correct me.

I have a very hard time believing this. Actually, I don't. I can guarantee your D90 will take better photos. In this case, it's likely all about presets. P&S cameras are usually preset to give most images high contrast and high saturation right off the camera. I don't know what a d90 does to jpegs by default, but with a little processing on your part, your D90 will make better photos. The key is in the processing. If you're letting the camera do your processing, you're cheating yourself.

 

[Kaytlin]

Thank you for the idea, though I do that often anyways! Just about 30 minutes to an hour ago I was outside shooting, testing differant modes on my camera so that I could see if some had better shutter speed or if any even changed aperture...which I cant seem to figure out, so I guess I have one set aperture. I took a lot of pictures, and learned my cameras macro mode is truly horrible, so I have to use "cuisine" mode to take close up or colorful pictures.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Goodbye, spammer, goodbye.

 

[psaracino]

I checked out your flickr if you think the pic is horrible don't post it until you make it better and you are happy with it. You may want to practice more with lighting, if you can't afford to get deflectors look on you tube on how to make one with household objects, then you'll have something to practice your lighting techniques. There are also some good tutorials on you tube about lighting. Good luck and have fun with it, you have an opportunity alot of photographers don't, models that will pose for free( friends).