Critique my first pics

[gabew]

So I just got my first DSLR of Saturday and I am in love with it. I am upgrading from a crappy kodak p&s and this a a bazillion times better. The camera is a Canon T2i and the lens is a 28-80 f3.5-5.6 I know it is not the best lens in the world but so far I have liked it. I have been shooting like crazy at everything trying to learn how to use it. I have been doing almost everything in full manual to learn. I have been experimenting with iso, aperture, and shutter speed, something I couldn't control on my p&s.

Anyway here are some of my first pics so you guys can critique them and give me advice. Don't forget this is my first DSLR and even though I have done plenty of research any advice will help.

I was doing a lot of macro stuff and I really liked it. My lens has a pretty good close focusing distance so I can get some good shots.

Here are some pics experimenting with a small depth of field.

One pic with a large depth of field.

Some other ones I liked.

Some more macros focusing on bugs. (some were later cropped with photoshop)

This one was cropped.

 

[gabew]

This one was cropped.

This one was cropped.

This one was cropped.

Now some landscape pics of my backyard.

And of our pond and my neighbors horses, notice the reflection off the water.

Finally some of my dog.

 

[jimmy_beaner]

You should play around with the "Rule of Thirds". Your subject shouldn't necessarily be dead center in all the pics. I also have the Cannon T2i, and I love it. If you decide you like Macro photography, you may wish to get a Macro lens. The 100mm f/2.8 Macro Cannon offers is a pretty good lens for not a bad price. I have the 100mm f/2.8L Macro and it's just stunning. Downside is, no zooming.

This is a photo you should be able to pull off with your combo, this was taken with the T2i and a 28-135 f/4.0? hand held.

Notice how the flower and butterfly doesn't line up in the center of the picture, but more at the intersection of the right third and upper third. Some of your pictures seem a little soft around the edges. This could be a slow shutter, or if you're manually focusing, you may have slightly missed focus. As a general rule, you should have 1/x shutter, where x is the mm you're shooting at. Thus, if I was shooting at 100mm, I should have at least 1/100th shutter while being as still as possible. (again, this is a "minimum", you can get away with less... but you should get consistently good shots hand held if you keep that rule in mind).

Just as a teaser, the Macro lens will allow you to take these kinds of shots (handheld)

I'm not sure if you've ever heard of a lightbox, but it's a pretty good investment (or DIY project) to practice some of the settings and how you want to frame things up. I tend to hate cropping pictures, so I try to get the shot framed how I want it to turn out in the end. Use all those pixels to capture your shot, not your shot plus 50% extra (wasted) information.
Here's a lightbox shot.

That doesn't mean you "have" to (or even "should") use the Rule of Thirds, but it might help. You have some good shots there for your first time out with the T2i. It would help if you posted your EXIF data from the pictures as well for more pointed advice (ISO settings, shutter speed, aperture, etc).

 

[gabew]

Thanks for the advice. Nice pics!

 

[gabew]

Anyone else?

 

[Brett9917]

Sorry bud, you have a bunch of broken links...

 

[Recty]

Anyone else?

You must have changed something in your Photobucket account, I cant see the pictures at all.

 

[gabew]

Yup just got that fixed here ya go sry.

 

[jimmy_beaner]

Just FYI, you can change the focus point of the T2i to be consistent with the rule of thirds. I'm not sure if you've played around with it much, but there's a pair of small buttons by your right thumb. IIRC, the right one of those buttons will open up the focus position.

 

[gabew]

Ok thanks I'll try that.

 

[xtm]

Work on learning how to expose properly. A lot of those shots have blown highlights.
Composition is something that you will instinctively learn as you shoot more.
Also, only pick 10 of your best photos and narrow them down to 5, but post only your best 1...... 3 at most.

If you're just getting started, I highly recommend reading the book "Understanding Exposure" by Brian Peterson. It will explain everything you need to know to get started. Good luck!

 

[gabew]

Thanks. I'll look into that book.