Newbie and his D40...

WirelessMonkey

WirelessMonkey

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
Messages
874
Location
Oxfordshire, UK
Car(s)
MK1 Golf Driver
Just received my first DSLR, a D40. So i randomly snapped any subject i can :) Getting to grips with the camera. Lovely to use, really easy. Anyway here are some of my first shots. Pretty rubbish :p

DSC_0005.jpg
DSC_0012.jpg
DSC_0017.jpg
DSC_0021.jpg
DSC_0022.jpg
DSC_0025.jpg
DSC_0031.jpg
DSC_0028.jpg
DSC_0026.jpg


^ Yes my trainers are pink, white, grey and yellow :p
 
Last edited:
When I started I also just started taking photos of loads of stuff. Just try and use the camera in manual mode, and have a play with the settings to see how the camera reacts. Shooting outside in light conditions makes it much easier - when I was first taking pictures of loads of stuff it was mostly plants and flowers.
Then read up, and practice on framing shots. An extremely important factor.

Also, please send me one of those kittens.
 
Pay attention to your focus - in many of these pictures you got it wrong. *proud noob of giving his first advice* :lol:
 
Yeh, the focus is poo in a lot of them (however it improved the more pics i took, i havent posted them in order xD). This is because i didn't zoom in on the pic when it was on the camera, i just looked at it and thought yeh thats fine but as soon as u zoom in you can see if its actually in focus or not :p

Btw, the kittens come from the Siamese cat :) The silver tabby is mine, called Sylvester :)


EDIT: Oh and when mum get's back with the clio i may go out and use it for some pictures. Using flowers in the garden on the way ;)
 
Last edited:
DSC_0025.jpg


Sweet! Focus is on the right spot and composition is good..
 
^ +1 on that pic
 
^ Shoes - love them, hate the Nike tick.

And with your focus, remember not to get too close so the kit lens can't focus on it. I usually point the camera directly at the subject, press the button halfway, so it focuses, then (while keeping the button pressed) move the camera to compose the shot. This doesn't work if you have it set on AF-C or the servo setting.

ANd I prefer your cat - we used to have two just like that. Gotta love the cats.
 
Needs moar light. Other than that one sharp cat picture these are all way blurry because of low lighting and long exposures (the sharp one also has the quickest shutter speed). Don't be afraid to use a little bit of flash to raise up the shutter speed.
 
As for the focusing, i have the lens switch set to "M", manual in other words :p Auto focus is cheating and for educational purposes I'm throwing myself in the deep end (i learn easier that way) anyway. Here are 10 more pics from outside the house, which solves the lighting issue ;) Your right Speedtouch, much easier to get a nice picture when outside. Point and shot some flowers and some of the Clio :D

P.S: Sorry about how pic heavy this is all getting :/
DSC_0047.jpg
DSC_0046.jpg
DSC_0045.jpg
DSC_0044.jpg
DSC_0043.jpg
DSC_0042.jpg
DSC_0041.jpg
DSC_0040.jpg
DSC_0039.jpg
DSC_0038.jpg
 
WirelessMonkey said:
Here are 10 more pics from outside the house, which solves the lighting issue ;) Your right Speedtouch, much easier to get a nice picture when outside.
Click to expand...
When you dive into photography, you notice how much light is going on outside, and how little when you're inside.

Anyway, enjoy your D40, great cam! :cheers:
 
WirelessMonkey said:
As for the focusing, i have the lens switch set to "M", manual in other words :p Auto focus is cheating and for educational purposes I'm throwing myself in the deep end (i learn easier that way) anyway.
Click to expand...

Oi, you might want to look into a Katzeye if you want to be able to focus accurately. Digital cameras are made for auto focussing, no cheating in that.
 
I guess I meant manual mode - not manual focus. I use AF - is that really cheating?

Anyway - the shots are looking good, much better when they have a lower ISO with less noise.
However work a little more on the composition with the car shots. They're good, but try to keep the camera flat. Having to tilt your head to see what is in the photo is quite annoying. They also seem a little over-exposed. I would suggest using f8 - I do quite a lot now. It seems to give a good focal range, which may have improved the one of the side detail by making more of it in focus.

As for the flowers try to keep the background less cluttered by maybe pointing the camera in a different direction - have a try. The second to last one is good at this, just a shame about the focus/blur issues. I don't know how shaky your hands are (mine were fairly bad but have got better), but try a shutter speed slightly faster than 1/60 - if you aren't holding the camera (the D40 comes without an IS lens, I gather) in exactly the right position/way then the slightest of jolts coming from even pressing the shutter button can have a big enough effect.

I would advise just spending a bit of time working with the shutter speed, f number, ISO etc to gauge how your camera reacts to different conditions. Once it clicks you'll be able to set the camera up before taking a picture and getting it right.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh - I'm not trying to be - I just much prefer constructive criticism. There are some very nice shots in there. And sorry my post is so long, I didn't have time to write a shorter one.
 
Something that helped me to eliminate shaken photos is to remember the following simple formula:

(1 /) shutter speed should be equal to or bigger than focal length

Meaning that when you are working in lower light conditions, you should not expose longer than 1/20s when at 17mm, and not longer than 1/60s when at 55mm (note that the bigger the shutter speed number is, the shorter your exposure gets, since it's "1/"). You can of course still use longer exposure times, but the danger of getting shaken photos increases dramatically, since you can't keep the cam perfectly still.

Also, f=8 has proven to be good for most well-lit conditions, since for most lenses it means you're operating in the area where it works best.

As for the D40, photos will be excellent at ISO 200, good at 400 and usable at 800. Only go higher if there's no light whatsoever and you desperately need the shot. But there will be a lot of noise at ISO 1600 and above.
 
Last edited:
the Interceptor said:
As for the D40, photos will be excellent at ISO 200, good at 400 and usable at 800. Only go higher if there's no light whatsoever and you desperately need the shot. But there will be a lot of noise at ISO 1600 and above.
Click to expand...

Yes, totally true. On the D40x, even ISO600 and above is too noisy usually for my tastes.

If you have to shoot in a high ISO, a little program called NoiseNinja can be used to lessen the noise... works incredibly well.


WirelessMonkey, most of those shots are quite good... only thing I recommend, don't just shoot random things. I find actually planning on a subject and thinking about it for 30 seconds before shooting tends to produce much better results than just putting my eye to the viewfinder and shooting anything that goes past.

Oh, and don't get bogged down with the whole cheating business. Even if you use your camera on full auto and end up with a good looking picture, it's worth it - it's only the picture that matters at the end, not your knowledge of your cameras settings.

Surely it's better to set everything yourself, but there is no shame in using auto mode sometimes (and definitely no shame in using auto focus ever).
 
I really like your Renault...

Pretty good shots, and you're doing the right thing with just going out and taking bunches of pictures to see what works and what doesn't. Best way to learn I think. Just watch your focus, your light and your composition, but I think you've got a good handle on it so far, just keep practicing.
 
If you want to learn to focus in manual mode and you really don't want to "cheat" it helps if you get a tape measure or a measuring device of some kind. One way to do this: measure out a set distance, like say 5 or 10 feet, focus on that, then try moving around to learn how to estimate distance. Once you learn where your "x foot mark" is, stay there and bracket your aperture (so shoot at f/1.8, 4, 8, 16, etc.) to see what it does to your focal plane.

It might seem like a lot of work but this will be really helpful in the long run. You'll be able to estimate a good shooting distance and really know where your focal plane begins and ends. If you do this with something like a "nifty 50" and really train your eye, you will have an intuitive feel for your lens. You will get way more consistent results than somebody who has a 3-300 just "puts it in the middle," guesses, and relies on AF to make focusing decisions for them.

G'luck and congrats on moving up to the DSLR
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top