New forum member

[leprechaun]

Hi All,
Just joined the forum and it took me a while to figure out how the forum works and I like the feel of it. Their seems to be a lot of talented members willing to share their knowledge. I will still need a bit of help from time to time. This is my first try at uploading photos. Hope they don’t bore you.
Critique and criticism is a good thing, means people took the time to look and offer their suggestions.
I just dusted off my Nikon D3200 and decided to try to use it a bit better.
I am into general photography, mainly landscapes and garden flowers. I also like getting the sharpest photo I can, high f stops and slow exposure.
One of my favorite spots is the Assiniboine Park which has a lovely English garden with lot of flowers, it is nice to have a dander around it, there is also the Leo Mol sculpture garden attached to it. Leo was a local Winnipeg sculpture.
I have been taking pictures for about 50 years and have never bothered sharing them, self conscious I guess.
I took some shots there last week and On Monday I took my camera for a walk in the rain.
Good bad or indifferent, here they are
Pat.


1 - Taken with a coolpic iso 200, 1/89sec, F/309 hand held


2 - Thunder storm Iso 80, 2 sec F/3.5 hand held coolpic


3 - Yellow flower, Nikon D3200 Iso 100, 1/200 sec, F/8 1.0 ev


4 - Pink flower


5 - Took camera for a walk in the rain. Iso 100, 1/320, F/8, -0.33 ev


6 - B. Lamb Had camera set to iso 100 but camera switched to iso 800 for all these rain shots. Next time I'll use manual


7 - Family brinzw, used fill flash is0140, 1/40, F/5.6


8 - Nude girl bronze, Iso 800, 1/20, F/8


9 - The English garden


10 - Dripping wet flower iso 800, 1/80, F/8, -0.33 ev


11 - Wet Maid


12 - Moses in the rain


13 - Wet Maids at pond


14 - Another Moses


15 - The old mill


16 - The mill weir

[Shadowman]

The D3200 shots look a bit better than the Coolpics. Nice efforts, are you doing any post-processing to these, are you shooting with the presets or other modes?

[Dave Humphries]

HI Pat, Welcome to the CiC forums from me, great to have you join us.

Wow, you certainly arrived with a bag full here!

I have separated and numbered the shots to ease feedback references, it'll help us all if you do this next time - and if I might also suggest being a little more selective, that's a lot to consider in one go! Oh, I also removed a duplicate of the yellow flower (4) that cropped up near the end.

OK, I'll dive in (and forgive me, but I am going to have to concentrate on "things to improve", so it may come across as negatives, but it is with the intention of being constructive) ....

1 - reasonable composition, but I'd kill that date stamp for serious photography.

2 - less appealing composition with car and bin, and if I'm not mistaken, the light stripe is the camera being tilted during the initial part of the exposure, smearing a street light - rather than lightning, although it may well have been a thunderstorm, that's not what we're seeing here.

3 - Looks a bit over exposed, also, given the bud, I'd have framed with more space to the left, not the right.

4 - Also looks a bit over exposed - particularly when shooting flowers in sunlight, I find it essential to review the colour histogram and blinkies, and re-shoot if I have over exposed.

5 - this one does nothing for me I'm afraid, so moving on to something else ...

6 - Interesting sculpture, but sadly I think focus missed, or the camera shook during the 1/20s exposure. If possible, IIWY, I'd have moved to my left when shooting this so the 'prop' blade didn't appear in front of that tree trunk.

7 - The flash helps illuminate the subjects, but the 1/40s shutter speed has left too much exposure in the sky behind, I'd have tried 1/200s at same aperture and iso, but you'd have to shoot full manual to achieve that, not Aperture Priority. Even then, that's a hard angle to separate the subject from such a 'busy' and contrasty background.

8 - We do need to see her toes, but we don't need to see that circular thing in lower left corner; I'd have panned a little right (or cropped in PP) to remove it.

Phew, only half way through .... deep breath ...

9 - I think I'd have panned, or side stepped, a little right here; just so we could see the sweep of the path and lawn loop back in, instead of it being cropped at right edge. You shot f/8 at 55mm, but sadly the foreground on left is a little soft - you may want to read up on hyperfocal distance, so you make better use of the available Depth of Field (DoF) and/or be careful where the camera focuses in scenes like this.

10 - I wonder if a slight PP crop would help tidy up the composition. Not that it's a bad shot.

11 - Would have been better w/o Moses creeping in to the background, also that blade of grass sticking out of her chest is a shame, but I like the concept you were trying to achieve here, the rain on the water's surface works well.

12 - Good composition, would be worth selectively sharpening just Moses in PP though.

13 - Another where I'd have framed differently, I feel there's too much on the right hand side, I'd have panned left a bit, then clicked.

14 - Needs cropping to exclude the spot lights and also the camera held level and carefully positioned to avoid the need for PP perspective correction - it was possible to get this right in camera with a bit more care - I know because this is the kind of scene where, when I notice these errors on reviewing LCD, I'll re-shoot multiple times until I get it right.

15 - A bit over exposed, also, I'd have framed, or cropped in PP to eliminate the block of flats behind.

16 - Not a particularly appealing subject matter, except as a record shot. Might be improved with a crop to lose some off the left hand side in PP.

I do hope you find those comments helpful, Dave

PS
you may find the first post in this thread useful:
How to Get Effective Feedback for your Posted Images

[leprechaun]

Thanks John
I just grabbed the coolpics and stood at the end of the carport and took a few shots trying to get the rain.
I do very little PP just a bit of cropping and a little bit of general exposure. I use paintshop pro x6 and although I have had it for a few years I haven't taken the time to really learn it. I am not really interested in sitting at the computer for hours trying to fix a pic that in my opinion should have been right in the camera.
I hope to lean on some of the more experienced photographers to gain a bit of guidance, I still have the old film camera mind set and haven't got comfortable with the dslr yet.
Thanks,
Pat

[Shadowman]

Thanks John
I just grabbed the coolpics and stood at the end of the carport and took a few shots trying to get the rain.
I do very little PP just a bit of cropping and a little bit of general exposure. I use paintshop pro x6 and although I have had it for a few years I haven't taken the time to really learn it. I am not really interested in sitting at the computer for hours trying to fix a pic that in my opinion should have been right in the camera.
I hope to lean on some of the more experienced photographers to gain a bit of guidance, I still have the old film camera mind set and haven't got comfortable with the dslr yet.
Thanks,
Pat

Hi Pat,

When I got into digital photography I did so with P & S cameras and didn't bother much with editing either. I think I was just lucky but as I became more ambitious in the types of subjects I pursued realized that some or a lot of post processing was necessary; at the least noise reduction and some sharpening. I've used the D3200 and it's a good camera, I liked playing with the Guide mode but was never really happy with the sunset preset and as Dave pointed out in his analysis Nikon tends to overexpose most shots; so a little post-processing is sometimes necessary especially if you trying to capture what you see. The other presets seem to work well and you can't beat aperture/shutter priority but even these settings tend to overexpose some scenes. You might want play with the metering system to get more out of the camera.

[leprechaun]

Dave, Thank you for your feed back.
Sorry to have dumped so much in the post, jump in with both feet, that's me.
You have given me some good suggestions. I was a bit disappointed with the rain pics. When I downloaded them I found that the Nikon D3200 had bumped up the iso to 800. I am still getting used to this camera. I had the iso set at 100 with the upper max iso at 800, and I was in aperture mode. next time I will use manual.
I was hoping that the sun would come our as I was looking to get some rain drops on the flowers but it was not to be. It's hard trying to hold the umbrella, frame, focus and shoot.
I will try a few more shots again (when it's not raining) and try you suggestions on framing and composition.
Next time I will only post one or two pics.
I am an old slr film guy with a hand held light meter so the dslr has a lot more going on which I have to master. I wonder if they will ever come out with a twin lens reflex dslr, my old Yashica twin lens reflex, 21/4 sq was one of my favorite cameras.
Again thanks for the welcome and your suggestions.
Pat

[leprechaun]

Yes I found that is was a bit on the bright side so in bright sunlight I usually dial in -0.33 ev. I haven't used any of the preset scene modes yet, Oh! there is so much to remember but I enjoy it,
Cheers,
Pat

[Dave Humphries]

Hi again Pat,

You have given me some good suggestions. I was a bit disappointed with the rain pics. When I downloaded them I found that the Nikon D3200 had bumped up the iso to 800. I am still getting used to this camera. I had the iso set at 100 with the upper max iso at 800, and I was in aperture mode. next time I will use manual.

If the light was that bad (or I should say dim), then that's how dim it is, (as you'll know) to properly expose a shot requires a balance of iso, shutter speed and aperture, so if the aperture is chosen for DoF, as would be wise for these scenes, then only shutter speed and iso are available, too slow a shutter speed without a tripod could spell disaster - and that may have affected at least one of the above, even with the iso at 800.

I wouldn't worry about iso 800 with that camera, if you're not cropping wildly and downsizing properly to post here, it should disappear with pixel averaging and as John noted, you can always noise reduce in PP.

I shot my D5000, a generation or two earlier than the D3200 at 800 iso max. (without NR), so as long as digital inexperience and seeing it at 100% in PP doesn't falsely cause you concern, you should be OK.

All the best, Dave

[IzzieK]

1) Maybe there is a way to disable the date on your P&S.
2) That is waayyyyyyyyy scary…
3) Some overexposure on the petals but you got the idea. A square format will be a good crop for this one..
6) I like this one very much…It looks like a propeller of an airplane and the guy is trying to turn it. It is kinda hard in the rain without an airplane.
7) Bronze nude girl feet need a bit more room.
8) Although this is a nice scene here, it would have been nice if you move your angle to start the walkway at the corner of the frame and take a little bit more of the curve at the right.
12) looks like Moses is angry at the rain…wonder what he was saying..
13) love this composition but would have been nicer if you had taken this on the other side with their faces showing…if you had room.
14) Is this still a working mill? Just curious…

Anyway, a warm welcome to CiC. A bit of advice, try using your Live View at the back of the camera, then set the mixture of aperture and shutter speed. If you have made up your mind on either, try EC. Ask any questions if you are confused. Cheers.

[Wavelength]

High, Pat. Warm welcome

There are many nice shots in the set; but some are poorly composed, which is quite common when you start experiment; please keep up your experimentation... all the Best

[Black Pearl]

I think your best bet would be to upload one or two shots in a new post and ask for advice - specifically - exposure settings/composition/post processing and see if the advice from members here can improve your output.

[leprechaun]

Thanks Nandakumar,
I'll keep trying. I have a few more photos to post but I think I should post them in the Nature and arctecture side. I think I started this thread in the welcome new members one.

[leprechaun]

Thanks for the welcome and your comments Izzie,
The P&s camera was the closest camera, I only use it to record the progress of the airplane restoration. I volunteer ate the Royam Aviation Museum of Western Canada in the restoration section, rebuilding A/C engines and old aircraft.Yes I've a thing or two to learn,I was just trying to catch the rain, it was a tough shoot with the rain, holding the umbrella, the camera and fighting off the mosquitos, after an hour I gave up. I have a few more to post.
Cheers,
Pat

[leprechaun]

Well here are a few more photos on my journy to improving.
Butterfly and flowers from the English garden, I got there about an hour too early as the garden was is shade because if the surrounding trees plus the mosquitos were out again.

This the first butterfly I've ever shot

Orange Lilly (I think)


Poor framing!

Decanter, natural light, ISO 100, F/11, 1/15 sec. FL 52 mm

Same but at 1/3 sec. Just trying to see how sharp the Nikor 18-55 mm kit lens was. all shots on a tripod, Need to straighten these a bit. No PP

This one was at ISO 800
What do you think? Still learning and trying
All C&C's welcome.
I think it would be helpful it these great photos posted by other members could have some of the shouting info attached. Or perhaps this info is available and I don't know where to look on the forum.

[Shadowman]

Did you turn off VR? These are still soft especially for tripod shots, also are you nailing the focus; using single point auto focus? You may also be a bit too close to the subject and the camera/lens is having trouble focusing.

[shreds]

I am an old slr film guy with a hand held light meter so the dslr has a lot more going on which I have to master. I wonder if they will ever come out with a twin lens reflex dslr, my old Yashica twin lens reflex, 21/4 sq was one of my favorite cameras.

Hi Pat, I will add my welcome to CiC too.

Quite a few of us here are from celluloid backgrounds so don't feel out of place, you probably know more than some of the younger ones as in film days it was an essential to understand exposure etc.

However, to catch up, the tutorials section is very useful and some of the best advice on the web.

(Finally, a digital twins lens reflex would be a DTLR - a DSLR obviously being a 'digital single lens reflex'. With the advent of electronic viewfinders, I doubt we will ever see a DTLR though).