I'm very new at this, so don't laugh!

[Shart]

Hi all, I'd been toying with the idea of buying a DSLR and messing around with a bit of photography for a while now, and during the boxing day sales i grabbed myself a twin lens kit Nikon D60. To be quite honest i knew very little about photography when i bought it but previous experience in life has taught me that sometimes the best way to learn is to throw yourself straight into the deep end and force yourself!

Anyway, after a couple of days of reading the manual, playing with the camera, reading tips online, playing with the camera, more studying and more playing with the camera, of the numerous photos i've taken i've selected 2 that I'm happy with.

At the moment i have no licence so i'm limited to subjects within walking distance (i guess another way to learn to work with what you have!). I had a wander in my backyard and found these flowers, and tried every angle/aperture/SS/ISO setting until i came up with this:


Please critique and tell me what could improve this photo, as i said i've VERY new at this!

The next photo i got while following my two cats around the garden, trying different angles/settings etc until i got this:

I feel like the look on his (His name is Battlecat, FYI) face draws the viewers attention straight to it and i kinda like the ghostly aura although the grass looks blurred.

Again i'm new, and these are probably terrible, but i'm here to learn.

[Greg B]

Hi Shart, and welcome to the forum.

Step 1 - you need to have a meaningful location in your profile.

Step 2 - get a camera and take photos. Already achieved.

With the second shot, I would be tempted to crop it just to the right of the
central cat, it will make the second cat a bit more obvious and you won't lose
anything of interest.

I don't know quite what to say about the first shot, probably could use some cropping too.

Anyway, you are going to have a ball with the D60, look forward to seeing more of
your shots.

[Kreapen]

Hi Shart and like Greg said, Welcome to the forums..

This is one of the best places to learn

I think the thing in the first photo isn't so much the cropping but just the lighting? The whole image just seems a bit "Dull" but i think if it was exposed longer or taken at a better time in the day so there was more green on the leaves and blue in the sky it could have really had alot more interest to it.

Maybe cropping in closer to the flower on the left may help a bit but i feel its just a bit dull..


The 2nd photo i think a crop would defiantly improve but a shame that the water bowl in the background shows on either side of his tail. It is a bit of a distraction

[Shart]

Thanks for the replies and the tips guys. I've cropped the 2nd photo and i like the results. Although i never noticed the water bowl until after i cropped it.

I won't bother with the first photo, i too thought it was a little dull. But it was one of the best! just goes to show how new i am! I'll just put it down to experience .

Here is the edited pic:

[Mitchell]

Welcome - having a go is definitely the only way to learn.

From here on in - you will now remember to look at the whole frame. There is nothing worse than a great portrait only to realise a lamp post is sticking out of the subject's head. In your case you have a blue bowl that is really distracting (once you notice it that is!)

Also think about composition. I think having the cat in the centre does give it a certain prominence - but it has left a lot of dead space on either side. What about taking this shot with the camera vertical? Also remember the rule of thirds - it is often more pleasing to place a subject on a line that breaks the image into three.

Happy shooting!

[aim54x]

Welcome to the forum. My mate bought a D60 a few days before Xmas and has been having a ball with it I am sure you will as well. I dont have a license either so anywhere I can get via foot or public transport is great.

With the pictures that you have posted,

#1 try a close crop on the flowers (I am assuming they are the main subject) that way you will get rid of all that distracting background

#2 I am torn about, the cat just seems overexposed (did you use the flash?), for future reference try using a portrait orientation to emphasize the cats tail and remove the empty space on either side.

The grass starts to move out of focus due to the depth of field being concentrated at the level of the foreground and face of the cat.

[Shart]

Again thanks for the tips guys. I've had a play around in Aperture and i've come up with this:
(i'm not trying to milk this one photo, just seeing what i can learn from it)



Let me know what you think.

[aim54x]

its looking good, try chopping off some of the LHS so you get a 3:2 ratio in portrait orientation.

[gstark]

Hi, and welcome.

To be quite honest i knew very little about photography when i bought it

And your about to realise how much more there is to learn.

But you've bought a great camera to start learning with. The user interface on the D60 is second to none, and some of the elements of that UI are designed to help you understand the relationships that several important elements of photography have to one another.

but previous experience in life has taught me that sometimes the best way to learn is to throw yourself straight into the deep end and force yourself!

Yep, absobloodylutely!

Which "twin lens" kit did you get? Several stores market some third-party lenses with the body, so it helps to know ...

At the moment i have no licence so i'm limited to subjects within walking distance (i guess another way to learn to work with what you have!). I had a wander in my backyard and found these flowers, and tried every angle/aperture/SS/ISO setting

Ok ... let's stop right there.

While I appreciate that one line of thought might be to try many different methods, photography is actually, from the exposure PoV, quite scientific and very mathematical. Consequently, you may be better off (I certainly think so) starting with just one mode, and learning and understanding the ins and outs of that one mode, and then move to a second mode. Going that way, the principles that you've learned on the first stage will be easily applicable in the second, and your skills will grow exponentially.

So ... let's now start, and we'll switch your camera into A mode. (Canon users reading this should use Av). This means that your camera operates in aperture preferred mode, and that means that you choose the aperture setting, and you let the camera choose the shutter speed.

The only other variable that you need to be concerned with is the ISO, and I'd suggest (for now) sticking to 200 for most circumstances. For daylight, it's all that you need.

Now, with those basic settings in place, set your aperture to F/8, and go and start shooting. When you change your aperture values (I'd suggest making some images of the one subject changing just your aperture value), pay attention to the screen on the back of the camera, noting what happens (as depicted on that screen) as you change these values. What happens when you move from f/8 to f/11, f/16, and and f/22? And back again? And back to f/5.6 or lower?

Pay close attention to this, as this is very important stuff.

As you change your aperture values, also note what is happening to the shutter speeds that the camera is selecting.

The next photo i got while following my two cats around the garden

In this image, it seems that your camera automagically triggered the flash. That's good, but it's also bad. In this case, it has blown some of the highlights on the cat's face, and that's not good.

But the use of flash, as a fill technique, is slightly advanced, so we should not (yet) worry too much about it.

As others have noted, paying attention to what's in the viewfinder is very important, but it's also very basic, and it's also something that we, in the heat of the moment, often forget to pay attention to.

If you can learn this skill early, then it will be of great benefit to your photography as your skills evolve.

i kinda like the ghostly aura although the grass looks blurred.

Please go through the steps I've outlined above. As you do them, and as you make some observations regarding the shutter speeds, you will also start to see things happening in this realm. Pay attention; there will be a test.

[Matt. K]

Just kidding! Congratulations on your purchase and your new hobby......obsession!

[Shart]

I took a couple more shots this afternoon when i got home, noticed some bees in the flowers in the front garden this is my favorite out of all of the shots taken:



I cropped it and recovered some of the blown out areas in Aperture 2. I really like the blue in the sky in this photo.
I also played around with the colour and vibrancy with this photo and got some results that i liked. I'll leave this one in
for the moment as i like the colour.

Oh and whoever asked i got Nikon lenses with the kit, an 18-55 DX VR and a 50-200 DX VR.

The next photo i got was of another one of my cats (i have 4) was waiting to get inside. I cropped the top and recovered
some overexposure as well (most of my photos tend to be overexposed rather that under, is this common?)



All 4 of our cats have distinct personalties and there expressions are very individual, i can see them becoming great subjects for this new hobby of mine!

Both of these were taken on Aperture priority mode, which was much simpler to use than full manual. I think one of the things i need to learn is that getting a good shot takes patience also!

Tell me what you think, and thanks for all the tips!