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her are a couple of pics. I am still new at this so any advice would be good. these photo's (with the exception of teh clay target one) havn't been photoshoped at all - shooting one was justed cropped. All pics are handheld - currently looking at getting a tripod.

Any suggestions on how i can take photo's better would be great - ie exposure, framing whatever


Clay Target Shooting in Grafton - my coach


Taken with D70 and 70-300mm ED lense

Next three are Barrington Tops National Park - all taken using nikkor kit lens








Thanks
James

Nice shots, can you put your location into your profile. Seeing as that's Barrington Tops, I'm guessing you're from NSW.

yep just did that and then read your post Yeah at the moment i live in Grafton (far north coast NSW) but at the end of this month i'm moving to Newcastle.

Was camping at Barrington Tops over the ANZAC long weekend

bimborocks
Welcome to the forum. Looks like you have some well developed camera skills already.

Matt. K wrote:Looks like you have some well developed camera skills already.

maybe just a well developed camera

gradually getting the hang of it and working out what all the buttons and knobs do. also spent a fair bit of time reading on this forum which has helped alot. hopefully they only get better from here

welcome to the forum, my best advice would be to learn how to use metering if you dont already, its so simple and saves you so many wasted images. (i learnt about 3 months after getting camera)

Welcome........... Your camera skills look quite advanced, tell us more..... maybe some ND filters to give your water pix's a different look.......

cheers
bp

these photo's where taken at around lunchtime and was quite a bright day. The first and second water fall photos were taken at about 1/10th shutter speed and about 22f from memory and pretty close to 18mm zoom. this was as slow as the shutter speed would go without overexposing the water. Is this where i would use a ND filter? What effect would using a polarised filter have in situations like this?

I shoot in A mostly so i usually just crank the f numbers up till i get a good shutter speed. is this the way i should be doint it?

i have a friend who has taken some amazing waterfall photo's on film and he said about 1 sec is good for a real silky effect so after seeing his photo's i'm inclined to agree but because of a lack of tripod and brightness i couldn't try it.


The last photo was taken at about 1/200th sec shutter and i quite like the way it caught the water.

The first photo i just chucked in cause i like it and shooting clays is fun


also all of the pics were shot in jpeg but i am now starting to use RAW which will hopefully improve my pics a bit. all i have to do now is to learn to use PS

James

Hey James, welcome!
seems as though everyone has moved on from Birds last month to waterfalls this month, haha! Nah nothing wrong with that. Great shots mate.
I think 'big pix' touched on it best. Try your luck with an ND filter, it will add a few f stops and take the dramatic edge off the waterfall and pond area, cause lets face it most waterfalls are meant to be tranquil.
Deffinately look at getting a monopd/tripod if your really keen on moving down the 'nature' track...
Only a couple of months ago i was in your position a newbie... keep expanding your skills of shooting images and you wont know how to look back... Don't forget though, shooting RAW is'nt everything!

G'day James,
Welcome mate, judging by your shots and your altering the exposure/shutter times using a smaller aperture sounds like you already have quite a good grasp, took me a while to get that far .

Yep, an ND filter would help making the water shots have that creamy, blurred water effect but you'll definately need a tripod for long exposures. The Polariser helps (I think by about a stop or stop and a half) and can be used in a lot of other situations getting more saturation out of the sky etc, so they're really handy.

Cheers and keep posting.

Welcome James - I see very good pics and as others have already said you seem to have a grasp (natural) for getting the pic

how do i choose a ND filter - what brands are good, size and darkness?

oh forgot to add
Thanks everyone for such supportive comments I like these pics and it is good to know it's not just me