Newbie looking for pointers

dubhaus

dubhaus

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Lyndon
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Hello,

New to this photography scene.

I took my Nikon D3100 to Lytham and took this image in manual, no editing has been done. I am looking for pointers in the right direction to improve.

Any help would be appreciated.

Lytham42.jpg
 
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Hi,

Firstly, welcome to TP.

The main thing that strikes my is the lack of a clear focal point (the roses?). Whilst the pier is drawing me in I'm not sure where I should be looking. I personally think this could be improved by considering an alternative composition; I think I might have panned left so the pier was to the right of the image and leading into to centre as I think it is cropped too tight.

The above said its clear you thought about the shot and I can see what you we're aiming to achieve. The exposure looks good to me too :)
 
Why did you decide to use manual? It appears a touch under-exposed to me.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the welcome to the forum, never been on any kind of forum before this one, so I am a little nervous!

Thank-you for the advice, I will take this on board. The image wasn't actually cropped so perhaps I got a little to close?

I do have a few more from the same visit.

Driver-Wedge, as regards to using manual I have read on this forum that you should not use auto so I thought I would jump straight in and use manual. What would your advice be?

Lytham54.jpg


Both these images are un-edited.

Lytham56.jpg
 
dubhaus said:
Hi,

Thanks for the welcome to the forum, never been on any kind of forum before this one, so I am a little nervous!

Thank-you for the advice, I will take this on board. The image wasn't actually cropped so perhaps I got a little to close?

I do have a few more from the same visit.

Driver-Wedge, as regards to using manual I have read on this forum that you should not use auto so I thought I would jump straight in and use manual. What would your advice be?

Both these images are un-edited.
Click to expand...

I'll try not to sound sarky, you could stop selectively reading the advice:D.

Whether to shoot M or one of the semi auto modes is a common debate - and you definitely won't find a consensus to shoot Manual. (there are some strongly held beliefs on both sides of the debate).

The important thing isn't what mode you shoot in, you will learn the pertinent mode later. The important thing is understanding your meter. If you're shooting Manual and just chasing the meter, then you're not in control at all. You're just doing Manually what the camera would do for you automatically. Likewise, if you're shooting on one of the auto modes without thinking about your metering - you're not using your knowledge to check what the meter is telling you.

The 2nd 2 are better than the first, though all but the last appear OoF, how did you focus for these?
 
dubhaus said:
I have read on this forum that you should not use auto so I thought I would jump straight in and use manual.
Click to expand...

haha you read wrong :)

Some situations you cant use manual because it wont work for you.. Some situations you cant use auto as they wont work for you.. You use whatever mode that does the best job... Manual is a good mode for learning how your camera works and in the situation you had.. will work.. But I strongly advise you not to dissmiss auto modes out of hand :)
 
dubhaus said:
Hi,

Driver-Wedge, as regards to using manual I have read on this forum that you should not use auto so I thought I would jump straight in and use manual. What would your advice be?
Click to expand...

I'd have shot in either manual or AV. More often that not it would be AV. There's no right or wrong approach, but I was just curious as to why you'd chosen M. I certainly wouldn't proclaim to be anything close to an expert, but I can see a definite trend where 'newbies' seem to (not surprisingly) form the impression that you must be able to shoot in M to be any good at photography. As the guys above stated, it's about gaining an understanding of the camera's meter and how it will react to different scenes. For the shots above, you probably had the luxury of being able to take several shots to get the result correct with regards to exposure, but there will be situations whereby you don't have this luxury and a good understanding of your camera will help you out no end. You just need to keep shooting and practicing.

If the exposure is a little bit out, you always have post processing to pull it back a bit anyway.

With regards to composition, the last one is best for me. It could do with something else going on in the background perhaps - the sea, people walking, etc.

On the whole, not bad images but a bit of tweaking would help bring some life into them.
 
Phil V said:
The 2nd 2 are better than the first, though all but the last appear OoF, how did you focus for these?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

I had the camera in Auto Focus. I obviously need to learn about metering. Can you give me any advice or recommend any informative web sites?
 
dubhaus said:
Thanks for the reply.

I had the camera in Auto Focus. I obviously need to learn about metering. Can you give me any advice or recommend any informative web sites?
Click to expand...

But what were you focussing on?

With photography, you are leading your viewer. You have an eye for a picture, whether you realised it or not, they're not badly composed. But the focus isn't helping draw attention to a subject and the exposure was either a lucky guess or just missed (varies shot to shot).

See here for a guide to exposure (he recommends the use of Manual but nobody's perfect). ;)
 
Phil V said:
But what were you focussing on?
Click to expand...

Quite a valid point! I'm not sure really, obviously there in lies a problem.

I was not thinking of a focal point when I captured this and obviously should have. :bonk:
I was experimenting with the aperture and shutter speed to try and get the exposure correct.
 
I would agree the second shot is much better, thou it looks like the focus is on the tyre tracks..(the out of focus could be based on if you did this hand-held and not on a tripod)

Exposure wise I think you have done well and the colours of the sky look very nice and you have done well …

Tips for going forward....

I would read up on taking landscape shots.(compositions is key to these and I find very difficult to vision , but that’s me)
Tripod.
Time of Day/Night (You need to find the correct time of day that suits the shot..even cloud cover can make a huge difference)

Camera settings wise..
I would stick to AV to start with...and just re-adjust the using the Exposure compensation until you get the results you need.
I can't confirm any other settings as it's dependant on the light at that point in time.


Dan.
 
I'm pretty new to all this too but just wanted to say that as a novice I love the 2nd two shots.
 
To mirror what CharlieLens said, I too am very new to this. I also have a Nikon D3100 which I've owned for 6 weeks now.

You do have a natural eye for composition! I would like to be able to capture that...if it was me I would probably be taking pictures with the lens cap on still...

I've taken about 400 photos on my camera and I'm only marginally pleased with about 12 of them.

I read and read and read but you just cannot teach creativity and being able to lead the viewer. I only hope that through grit and determination I get some half decent results.

Good work dubhaus
 
I'm interested in the 'chasing the meter' comment. I too am very new to photography and experimenting with the M mode, I use the meter as a guide to get the exposure right, however find the Image often under exposed for my taste, so adjust a stop. Is this chasing the meter, and if you don't do this what is the meter for?

I've got a couple of books arriving from Amazon tomorrow which might help (understanding exposure and Speedliters handbook).
 
Paule23 said:
I'm interested in the 'chasing the meter' comment. I too am very new to photography and experimenting with the M mode, I use the meter as a guide to get the exposure right...
Click to expand...

welcome Paul.

'chasing the meter' is when you use Manual mode but simply centre the meter whenever you frame a shot.

Those 2 books are really useful
 
i found it helpful at first to shoot in aperture or Shutter speed priority only. this gave me a better understanding of the relationship between the 2. it also means you can see the results of only chainging one aspect very quickly.
 
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Those 2 books are really useful[/QUOTE]

As a newbie, I am wanting also to set up a budget home studio (currently using speedlites). Would the speedliter handbook be any good to me?

Thanks.
 
saul01 said:
Those 2 books are really useful
Click to expand...

As a newbie, I am wanting also to set up a budget home studio (currently using speedlites). Would the speedliter handbook be any good to me?

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Yes, but you can also get a load of info from Strobist 101.
 
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