Project 52 Josh J (Josh)

[Josh]

Greetings everyone,

I am very recently purchased my first DSLR (Nikon d3200). But the goal for me is that I want to learn how to use my camera and the all the settings as well as to have great shots (eventually).

My first goal for the first few weeks is really just to focus on learning to shot in the basic settings of Apeture Priority, Shutter Priority, and maybe even have a good grasp on the manual mode.

My first picture was when I was out and about yesterday and the sun actually decided so peak out for the first time in about a week or two. The thing with this shot was I just happened to come across these train tracks when I was out and thought that it might make for a good scene.

With that being said I would appreciate your feedback. (I did a little touch up with Lightroom post shooting). But I when I took this I was playing around in Manual mode f/5.0, 1/200 sec and have cropped out part of the photo.

Josh

[FrankMi]

Hi Josh, Welcome to CiC from me! I have the D3100 and am having a great time with it. If you are just getting started, there are two areas you will want to concentrate on; composition and camera basics. Aperture and Shutter Priority are great places to start with camera basics.

Here is a link to help you get the most out of the feedback you can get from CiC:

How to Get Effective Feedback for your Posted Images

Hope this helps!
.

[Geoff F]

The basic shot looks fine to me, Josh, but I would try to give it a little bit more 'zap'.

A slight boost to the saturation/contrast should achieve that.

I would probably use a duplicate layer with the blend mode at Soft Light but I assume you don't have layers with your software.

As an alternative try a little Local Contrast Enhancement. Possibly Unsharp Mask around 20 or 30% and a radius of 30 to 40. This technique is always a bit on the 'try it then think about it' lines.