dissapointing results

tiamaria

tiamaria

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Name
justin
Edit My Images
Yes
after taking the plunge and buying a nikon d40x with a good lens nikon af-s dx vr zoom 18-200mm im dissapointed with every picture i have taken with it they all seem dull or blurry i had better results with my old bridge camera i dont know how to upload some of the pics i have taken otherwise i would put them up for you to see and maybe tell me where im going wrong just created a photobucket account if it works
http://s1268.photobucket.com/albums/jj576/justinj495/
 
I think if what your looking for are "Snapshots" then a bridge camera will give you them with ease, however if you are looking for more creative photography then the camera you have now will allow you to explore. I think what you need to do is play with your new toy and expirement. Are you shooting in full auto? do you shoot in RAW format?

Have you toyed with Apature and Shutter priory etc etc etc

Dont be dissapointed with your initial results... persist and explore :)

good luck

"It is not about having all of the latest gear or going out and grabbing all the newest hot gadgets for photography. It is about using what you have to the fullest extent before even thinking about what else you may need."

Jared Polin - www.froknowsphoto.com
 
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I moved from a bridge camera to an slr and felt the same for a while. You have to keep an eye on shutter speeds and make sure they don't get too low. Camera shake is also more of an issue unless you have VR lenses. Bridge cameras have smaller sensors so that their depth of field is larger. This has the knock on effect of hiding more poorly focussed shots. An slr shows up more when you missed getting focus whereas a bridge camera tends to be focussed-ish over a wider area.

Keep taking photos and experimenting :)
 
Your bridge camera is like a microwave dinner, anybody can get a sort of tasty dinner by pressing a couple of buttons.

Your DSLR is like cooking a dinner from scratch, you have to understand the ingredients and techniques, it's more difficult but if you master it you will produce something worthy of the effort. The downside being, if you do it wrong it's not even as good as the microwave dinner.

All of those pictures have faults, but by reading the manual and the Info on this site, you'll soon learn where you went wrong, if you want specific advice, post some in the critique section and you'll get lots of relevant advice.
 
Phil V said:
Your bridge camera is like a microwave dinner, anybody can get a sort of tasty dinner by pressing a couple of buttons.

Your DSLR is like cooking a dinner from scratch, you have to understand the ingredients and techniques, it's more difficult but if you master it you will produce something worthy of the effort. The downside being, if you do it wrong it's not even as good as the microwave dinner.

All of those pictures have faults, but by reading the manual and the Info on this site, you'll soon learn where you went wrong, if you want specific advice, post some in the critique section and you'll get lots of relevant advice.
Click to expand...

well said ! :super:

d40x + 18-200mm is a very nice combo and capable of excellent shots especially in normal outdoor situation.
 
Hi Justin, you can find instructions on how to post up pictures here If it does not work out for you then call for help again. Looking at your dog shot it is indeed a shutter speed problem, it was 1/10. The aperture should have let plenty of light in and the ISO of 800 was reasonable enough so I am not completely sure why you ended up with such a slow speed. Again the one of the lad running was at 1/60, not really fast enough to freeze the action. The others however look good enough to me, a DSLR will take a bit of getting used to and as far as the dullness is concerned that is just down to editing imo, as you get to know your camera you will have a good idea of what settings work best to give you a better picture that will require less work as far as editing goes, but even the best of them have to use it to some degree to extract all that goodness from their pictures :lol:
 
Looks like the photo's were taken in poor light conditions, with the two lads in front of the wall back lit without flash and at highish iso - so camera struggling with slow shutter, noise from the iso, narrow depth of field, all contribute to drag down the perceived quality. Fill-in flash would have helped with that one. The D40 is a cracking little camera when you get the hang of it. When I was looking for my first dslr I wanted one but the prices had gone silly so it was cheaper to buy a brand new D60 instead.

Persevere and experiment, perhaps get a book to get you started in the right direction.
 
Shutter speed and focus issues apart it looks to me like the dullness would have been caused by the overcast weather. Overcast weather is horrible as the light is diffused with no shadow/contrast, colours look dull etc,.
Not sure your bridge camera would have done anything differently on the same day unless it was manipulating the images with in camera saturation, contrast and so on?
 
thanks guys for the replys appreciate them all
 
I dont even bother taking my a good lens with weather like that.
Your bridges auto mode would also have struggled in those light conditions.

I think you should try again on a bright day. Give yourself a chance.

Thats a very nice bit of kit you have.
Have a look here for inspiration http://www.flickr.com/groups/17388948@N00/

I found it very useful when looking through flickr , to click actions and then exif info to examine what settings where used.
Dont give up.
 
Pretty sure everyone feels like you do when moving from a compact/bridge to a DSLR

First thing is to learn about exposure and the reciprocal relationship between Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO

As has been already said its mainly a combination of bad light and camera shake combined with using the wrong settings

Don't think it's been mentioned, but a tripod helps immensely in getting good photos in less than favourable lighting conditions.

Make learning fun by trying out the different settings, it will soon all click and then get your credit card ready for some action
 
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Yep, been through that and know I still have a LOT to learn (but that's half the fun). As others have said, the overcast sky creating a dull background is your worst enemy in the first couple. Then shutter speed in the next two. The last one isn't too bad. If it was cropped in more tightly it could make for quite a nice shot.

Keep playing, reading, experimenting, challenging yourself. I certainly am!
 
I know that for me the main issue is understanding why things didn't work out. Then, (in theory), the next step is applying that knowledge to get better shots next time around

Don't loose heart. Think of it as going from automatic gears to manual shift. It's tough learning how everything inter locks, but the extra control gives you so much more scope to make things work the way you want.
 
I like the dinner cooking comparison!

A couple of weeks ago i did a wedding shoot using my D40x and the nikkor vr 18-200 lens - all the shots came out lovely... but (in my opinion) the taking is only 50% (maybe less) of the overall process.

I, for one, love the post processing and artistry involved to get the best out of a good shot.
 
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Lots of us have been there, I had the same problem moving from film to digital.

Even though i was using many of the same lenses, on a crop sensor dslr I needed to learn new techniques.

Just keep taking photos, lots of them!!
 
The rule of thumb with shutter speeds is that it should match the focal length, so if you're using the lens at 18mm, you'd used 1/20th, at 60mm you'd use 1/60th, at 200mm you'd use 1/200th, and so on.

The VR technology will allow you to use a slower shutter speed without getting blurring from shakey hands. Your lens is (I think) rated at 3 stops, so theoretically you could shoot at 1/25th and still get sharp results. However, 1/25th is too slow for anything that's moving at more than a crawl, so you'd still need a faster shutter speed to get a sharp picture.
VR is for when the photographer is moving, not the subject.

Something else to consider is the white balance. When it's a miserable day, the vast expanse of white sky can sometimes fool the camera and leave things a bit blue, making things look even more miserable. Stick it on cloudy and it'll warm the image up a bit and give it some more life.
 
Keep trying using a DLSR takes a little more getting used to.
 
Having looked at the info of your shots I think the shutter speed is way too slow, similar thinking to most of the above. For portrait shots I try to keep it at least 1/125 to give me sharp shots and depending on the lens and shot I select the appropriate f stop to give me the DOF I want and then just up the ISO to suit. I don't know what the ISO handling is like on the D40x but on my 5D3 I can generally get the shutter speed I want but sometimes I need flash on top. If you're shooting Jpegs then you may need to alter the picture settings to get a bit more contrast and colour into the shot as well.
 
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