Need some help with new DSLR

[Brev00]

When I got my first dslr, I was pretty overwhelmed. So, besides reading the manual and other photography books, I used my camera as my teacher. I shot in the scene modes first. I looked at the settings the camera chose and eventually (after reading Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure) tried the A mode. I tried to duplicate the shots the camera was giving me automatically in the semi-automatic mode. Then, I gradually learned what happened when I changed the aperture. I let the camera do everything else at first. I find it much easier to learn one thing at a time. After a much longer while, I could get sports, action, portrait, and landscape shots choosing the settings myself and, later still, I started creatively changing settings to get different effects. Now, I shoot in manual or aperture with a hint of shutter priority. I would not necessarily recommend starting at this point. I didn't. Take it easy on yourself. There are no rules. Just a bunch of different tools all at your disposal.

[Horoscope Fish]

The colors, and skin tones in particular, look washed out in the first shot. That was using natural light only? I ask because it looks like a flash fired to my eye.

In latter shots there's also color balance issues. I also agree the shots look soft. Have you adjusted the sharpness setting in your Shooting Menu? My D5100 shot quite soft until I adjusted that setting to +6 or +7 since the factory setting was quite low. My current D7100 need some tweaking in that area as well, just far less of it.

Here's my quick fix on one of your shots; it's not perfect but it's much closer, I think. For this shot I balanced the color and did some sharpening.

[drjuice]

Hi, Kristen -

The main thing I'd suggest is get the manual out and start working your way through it, page by page. I find that downloading the manual from my vendor is an even better deal because I can print it out such that I have lots of blank space surrounding each page not to mention that because I print doublesided to minimize the total amount of paper. Then, I print the manual and put a comb binder (the plastic binding that has 19 small rectangular holes for the comb-like spine that come in various diameters ranging from 1/8 in to at least 2 inches) on the left edge. The only issue I find is that it's too big to fit into the bag I use for my camera gear. So, when I'm traveling, I always have it in my magazine box where I keep the documents supporting a particular trip. (I picked a magazine box because it fits well into a slot in one my travel boxes and all my support documents are always comb-bound and measure 8.5x11.)

If your vendor doesn't have a .pdf file of the user booklet available, I'd use something like a small spiralbound or sewn notebook to keep my notes. One of my friends keeps his notes in a moleskin notebook because the binding doesn't deteriorate over time. When we were discussion something a couple of weeks ago and I was having difficulty understanding what he was getting at, he hauled out the notebook and showed me the numbers applying to the situation. Then I got it!

One last time, READ THE MANUAL closely!

Hope this helps.

virginia

[verysimplejason]

To the OP, just my two cents... First picture seems a little bit over-exposed and the skin color seems unnatural though this isn't actually a bad thing. It's just that for this picture, I feel it's very light for my taste. Also, I think it's a little bit back-focused. One thing I would suggest you to try is an off-camera flash. Introducing some shadows to your composition might give it some "magic" boost. Also, giving your background a little more interest can also help. Of course, everything is still up to you. Don't worry, we are in the same boat, still learning. Don't be afraid to learn new things.

I suggest looking at this blog also. Their photos and techniques are very helpful. Just look at me try some of their techniques in some pictures in my flickr link. Keep shooting coz that's the only way to be better.

http://strobist.blogspot.com