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Check this out: my first pics with new Nikon

Joeytpg

Joeytpg

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 1, 2004
467
0
Vienna, Austria
I'm a total noob when it comes to dslr, but I reseached quite a bit and for what I needed the Nikon D40 was the best.

I love taking pics (reunions, trips gatherings with friends etc...) I'm the one wa the p&s in the pocket all the type, so I was thinking about getting a new p&s, but a good one costs as much as 350 dollars, so with the D40 being 400 something, it was a no brainer to me. I got it.

I was on vacation in Valencia with my girl and a friend, and I decided to test the D40 for the first time. Like I said I'm a noob but I researched a little bit, and learned somethings on composition, aperture, ISO, etc.....so this is the result.

let me know how can I improve and stuff. I used the P setting in all the pics, and played with the ISO, and some other stuff.

web.jpg


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How do you post thumbs????:confused:
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
Joeytpg said:
How do you post thumbs????:confused:
Click to expand...

The tags are [img] [/img] instead of [img] [/img] but that doesn't really create a thumbnail. It just constrains the image to 300 pixels wide.

EDIT: Some nice images there.
 
K

ksz

macrumors 68000
Oct 28, 2003
1,677
111
USA
This is some really good stuff!

I've never seen that structure before...what is it and where is it?

Your photos show a good understanding of exposure, including daylight face photos that are well exposed. The dusk and night photos are also good, but there a little blurriness in both. The third from the end is nicely framed. The dolphin photo would have been more pleasing from a little farther to the right, but other than that, good stuff!

P.S. I would try varying the contrast in the first two. Was a polarizing filter used?
 
Joeytpg

Joeytpg

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 1, 2004
467
0
Vienna, Austria
ksz said:
This is some really good stuff!

I've never seen that structure before...what is it and where is it?

Your photos show a good understanding of exposure, including daylight face photos that are well exposed. The dusk and night photos are also good, but there a little blurriness in both. The third from the end is nicely framed. The dolphin photo would have been more pleasing from a little farther to the right, but other than that, good stuff!

P.S. I would try varying the contrast in the first two. Was a polarizing filter used?
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the advice and the props :)

I tried to read as much as I could to understand some of the basic principles of photography, and trying to understand some of the settings on the camera....it's a LOT of stuff and my head couldn't really hold on to all of it.....but I tried.... plus I guess it's in the field, trying stuff where you really learn, right?

The dolphin photos was one of a series of 4 pics I took very very fast becuase the cam battery was dying (as a matter of fact it died after the fourth pic in that series hehehe) so that's why I couldn't get a "better" pic......

all of these pics are untouched...no crop, no PS, nothing....I want to learn how to take a good photography with the least amount of post editing..... I know the cropping option is not an "altering" tool as much as other stuff, but still.

The camera has no filter. it was taken with the kit lens (18 - 55) :)


keep the comments/advices coming please.....there's much to learn ! :D
 
Joeytpg

Joeytpg

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 1, 2004
467
0
Vienna, Austria
oh, one more thing...... the night shots were VERY hard....since I didn't have a tripod with me.....so the combination of a noob pulse + high ISO settings = shaky pics...... :(
 
TheReef

TheReef

macrumors 68000
Sep 30, 2007
1,888
167
NSW, Australia.
Joeytpg said:
oh, one more thing...... the night shots were VERY hard....since I didn't have a tripod with me.....so the combination of a noob pulse + high ISO settings = shaky pics...... :(
Click to expand...

Really great work keep it up. Your dark night shot is quite good as well maybe boost the iso to 1600 from 800 if the noise isn't too unbearable. Still good work especially using f3.5 handheld. Might also like experimenting with exposure compensation, perhaps drop it by 1ev or so to buy a stop or two of speed and darken the image.

Keep up the great work.
 
6

66217

Guest
Jan 30, 2006
1,604
0
Very, very good photos!

Just some comments:

-In the first photo of the two girls, watch out for flash reflections. In the sunglasses you can see the flash. If it is not a flash, then ignore me.:D

-In photo #7 you could have asked her to move a little more to the left. Kind like the rule of thirds. I think this is important in shots were the background is also important.
 
Joeytpg

Joeytpg

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 1, 2004
467
0
Vienna, Austria
Roco said:
Very, very good photos!

Just some comments:

-In the first photo of the two girls, watch out for flash reflections. In the sunglasses you can see the flash. If it is not a flash, then ignore me.:D

-In photo #7 you could have asked her to move a little more to the left. Kind like the rule of thirds. I think this is important in shots were the background is also important.
Click to expand...

Interesting!

yes that's the flash....how can I avoid that? by simply moving?
 
K

ksz

macrumors 68000
Oct 28, 2003
1,677
111
USA
taylorwilsdon said:
web.jpg
is lovely, and the rest are very good too. You're learning fast!
Click to expand...
Agreed. Although I think this is an ideal candidate for HDR. I wonder if there was a radiant golden sun instead of a pink hue. HDR would have captured the golden intensity while still exposing the structure properly.
 
6

66217

Guest
Jan 30, 2006
1,604
0
Joeytpg said:
Interesting!

yes that's the flash....how can I avoid that? by simply moving?
Click to expand...

You could trying moving a little until the flash doesn't reflects. The best solution would obviously be to use an external flash and a diffuser. (SB-400, SB-600, etc.).
 
Joeytpg

Joeytpg

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 1, 2004
467
0
Vienna, Austria
ksz said:
Agreed. Although I think this is an ideal candidate for HDR. I wonder if there was a radiant golden sun instead of a pink hue. HDR would have captured the golden intensity while still exposing the structure properly.
Click to expand...

would you mind using that pic and create an HDR version for me? I'd love it.......I gotta learn more about HDR because I really like the effects
 
taylorwilsdon

taylorwilsdon

macrumors 68000
Nov 16, 2006
1,868
12
New York City
Joeytpg said:
would you mind using that pic and create an HDR version for me? I'd love it.......I gotta learn more about HDR because I really like the effects
Click to expand...

I'm afraid that's impossible off a web-sized jpg... if you had 3 or more incrementally exposed images, or perhaps a single RAW file, it might be doable.
 
Joeytpg

Joeytpg

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 1, 2004
467
0
Vienna, Austria
no, sorry, no RAW. I'm still shooting in .jpg I still got lots to learn before I move to RAW photos :D



thanks for the comments guys, any more advices? keep em coming. :)
 
K

ksz

macrumors 68000
Oct 28, 2003
1,677
111
USA
Joeytpg said:
would you mind using that pic and create an HDR version for me? I'd love it.......I gotta learn more about HDR because I really like the effects
Click to expand...
I don't know how far you live from that Arts and Sciences structure, but if you have a chance to go back in the evening with a tripod, try to take 3 or 5 frames as follows without moving the camera:

1. Normal exposure
2. Set EV to +1.0 and snap
3. Set EV to +2.0 and snap
4. Set EV to -1.0 and snap
5. Set EV to -2.0 and snap

You can do this in JPEG or RAW.

Now download the trial version of Photomatix from http://www.hdrsoft.com and follow the simple tutorial to create a tone-mapped HDR image. (btw, Photomatix cannot import RAW so you'll need to convert RAW to JPEG or TIFF.)

I haven't used Photomatix in some time, but if you need assistance I can post some pointers here for you.

In general, though, any scene with high contrast works well with HDR, particularly in the evenings and early mornings (at sunrise).


Edit: Here's an example of what I mean. The normal photo is similar to yours with the pinkish sun. But the HDR version captures the true colors!
 

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