Critique my pics

[H@rry]

I'm pretty much a newbie to DSLR. About a month ago I bit the bullet and bought a D40 kit. I took it with me on my morning walk today and shot what I saw.

Feel free to point out anything that you think would make the pics better. I know some of them are out of focus as I was hand holding the camera. I was using the kit lens.

Thanx

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[H@rry]

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[H@rry]

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[H@rry]

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[is_that_a_fish]

if you're new to DSLR's, then i would say your getting there. a little more practice would do you some good. lol

of course, you would have been much happier with a canon...lol jk

anyways, i can bet you took those with the green box(auto) mode. or maybe the macro(little flower icon) mode. either way, if i were you i would try out the manual settings.

 

[dsubaru]

not into sunsets and flowers.. lol but I can tell that you gotta good eye for photography....good job!

 

[H@rry]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13267040#post13267040 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by is_that_a_fish
i can bet you took those with the green box(auto) mode. or maybe the macro(little flower icon) mode. either way, if i were you i would try out the manual settings.

I took the flowers in macro mode (flower icon). Point me in the direction of a starting place for manual settings. (ISO, aperture, shutter, etc.). To tell the truth, I tried some of these but none seemed any better than the macro mode.

 

[InLimbo87]

These are a good first start. Your composition of the photo in most are pretty good, but the image quality is not very good (out of focus, not very sharp, etc).

The auto modes are really holding you back here, and a big problem with your out of focus is that the shutter speed is too slow. The best thing I can recommend is to really get to know how your camera works (so you can get out of the auto modes) . A good starting place would be the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. He does a good job at explaining how to use the settings (Iso, Aperture, shutter) to make the picture you want.

 

[MCary]

Your shots are pretty good, but you asked for critique. I got two red squares above the fence so the fence was the first photo for me. The compostion was good but the light was too harsh. You might try shooting that shot earlier or later in the day. A polarizer would help remove the reflections off the leaves and fence.

Photos with camera shake or serious problems like the underexposed squirrel shouldn't be posted. You already know whats wrong with them and you should only show the ones you want to show off or those you have a specific problem with. Otherwise you'll be consider just another clown with a camera. Messes up your rep.

The sky was blown out in your house picture, all white. This is a difficult exposure issue. One I wrestle with often.

Learn the rule of thirds. All your pictures have the subject centered. For flowers that is often a place to break the rule. I don't know if you already knew that, but I thought if you didn't you'd benefit by learning more about composition.

A good post processing program would sharpen your pictures and make them look much better.

The bokeh in your flowers is too well defined. You may need a better lens to fix that, but try shooting them with your aperature wide open. Use a tripod if available, set to aperature priority, set the aperature to f4 or whatever the lowest number is, see if that makes a creamier background.

Mike

Okay, I see the first two. Sunsets. Good compositon wise. The thing about sunsets is that you should have foreground elements which you do. Exposure seems fine. So for pure technique, looks good. The subject is ordinary and the foreground elements are uninteresting. But if you ever see that "perfect sunset" your ready.

 

[H@rry]

Mike;

Thank you so much for your comments. Actually I am just another clown with a camera now but I'm trying to learn.

The squirrel was a crop from another picture that was so dark that I wouldn't have known it was in the pic if I hadn't lightened it.

I was shooting everything except the flowers in aperture priority. Notice how bright the house appears even thought it was still quite dark (it was early morning). See how the porch light show up. If you didn't notice that you might think it was during the bright part of the day.

I tried to correct all the pics with GIMP.

What is bokeh? I think I have seen that before but I don't know what it is. I'm looking at getting a 105mm macro lens just for close-ups,

Again, thank you very much for all your suggestions.

 

[Rosseau]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13267040#post13267040 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by is_that_a_fish
if you're new to DSLR's, then i would say your getting there. a little more practice would do you some good. lol

of course, you would have been much happier with a canon...lol jk

anyways, i can bet you took those with the green box(auto) mode. or maybe the macro(little flower icon) mode. either way, if i were you i would try out the manual settings.

Check the EXIF.

 

[Rosseau]

Keep the subject simple, most of these are pretty busy - especially the backgrounds. Try using larger apertures (i.e. smaller number) to isolate the subject... get down low on those flower shots.

Keep having fun and don't be afraid to throw away a picture if you're not a fan of it !

 

[latazyo]

PM sent Harry

as for critique, not gonna add much that others haven't said....pretty soft, but you're learning

looks like some low light situations with slow glass and hand held

I realize the canon guy was just joking, but don't feel like you've made a mistake, you have a great camera