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Hello all,

I bought my first ever camera (a Nikon D5000 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm) on Wednesday and went with eric_r on his First City Night Outing http://www.dslrusers.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=39787 for my first ever photo shoot.

I have no idea what to look for in a photo and any/all assistance/critique would be much appreciated.

Here are my favourite 3 photos (I haven't edited these at all)

cybergladiator wrote:I bought my first ever camera (a Nikon D5000 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm) on Wednesday and went with eric_r on his First City Night Outing viewtopic.php?f=18&t=39787 for my first ever photo shoot.

good to see your not mucking around and gettign out there.

That first one looks like saturn and its rings are about to collide with da earth and some starwars ship on the intercept. I find it strangely attractive in a disturbing way.

#2 is a nicely balanced image but lacks any real subject, the trees an dthe lines in the forground lead the viewer but not to anything, however it is a composition that has potential - work with it.

The last is good use of depth of field, but you need to put something interestign in that bit which is in focus, again, its a compositional technique you can work with.

Nothing like jumping in the deep end.. A photograph has to speak to you! What do you want from the scene? Visualise it then compose it - done. The rest is technicalities like ISO shutter speed and depth of field but the image has to speak to you first.

Great to see someone new diving straight in and posting images.
#1 seems a bit bright to me and also lacking in a focus although being intriguing.
#2 doesnt do much for me though
#3 lacks focus again, but I like what you have done with it, that selective focus will be something you can go a long way with

Thanks to all,

I'll take all the suggestions under my belt, hopefully I'll just get better with practice.

I like how you took a risk and went for the abstract approach in the first
It's actually interesting to see the haphazard staggered tones in the graduated sky and the way the ferris wheel seems static but there is some light trails, there is paradox in the image i don't even know how it was achieved and you managed to do it all in one image... rad

the 2nd one is a good idea but i think all the different elements in the picture mingle like a bucks party
but your the artist and if you photographed it, it means you had intention to imortalise something that most would walk past

the 3rd one is cool how it uses shallow focus, i remember when i got my first 50mm f1.4 lens one of the first shots i took is very similar i loved taken light discs while waiting for the train at night
i just find the black column a bit jarring to the simple honest eloquence of the image

keep raving

I dare someone to recreate the first one.

Winner gets a snickers bar!


I like that sky in #1. First thing that drew me to the image was that sky..it is literally "unreal". Youve got two light streams flying around.. Judging from the staggering pattern, it would have been a flourescent light source, I like these little wave thingies..(sorry can't find the word for it)., were they caused by a movement of the camera's direction towards street lights or something of such?

Those Tree's in #2 contradict to the background. It's a nice approach upon contrary elements. The green tinge on the image gets me thinking of Forest vs. City (left to right), looks kinda cool!

#3 is a great DOF shot in anyone's collection! well done! naturally desaturated too. kudos to you mate!