Just got my Nikon D50!! First SLR pics ever!

[Deleted member 4644]

Unfortunately, it was night, so I was a bit limited in my subject matter.

I took a pic of my cat and my mom's lamp.

Please feel free to comment! These are my first pics, if I did something wrong or if I could improve technically, please tell me!

Files are 3mb!

DSC_0016.JPG

DSC_0011.JPG

Smaller Versions (800x600)

DSC_00161.JPG
DSC_00111.JPG

 

[yhelothar]

Congrats!
A few tips
1. RESIZE!
2. Find better lighting!
3. I know there wasn't that much light so you wanted to shoot at the lowest F stop possible, but just stopping down by 1 stop will GREATLY improve sharpness.

 

[Tylanner]

damn im jealous

 

[Gatos]

Awesome

 

[HN]

you know, everytime i see samples from dslrs, it just compels me to say NUTS! and just go all out for one instead of a non-dslr. thanks a lot :|

 

[montanafan]

Nice bokeh on the cat pic.

 

[kyutip]

Congrats :thumbsup:

Come join/post here if you need help on anything :
dpreview nikon d70/d50 forum

And in case you did not know, owning a DSLR comes with it's own problem, Lens Lust.
To satisfy your craving, look here :
dpreview nikon dslr lens forum

Now go take some more :camera:

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Originally posted by: virtualgames0
Congrats!
A few tips
1. RESIZE!
2. Find better lighting!
3. I know there wasn't that much light so you wanted to shoot at the lowest F stop possible, but just stopping down by 1 stop will GREATLY improve sharpness.

So instead of f/2.5, go to f/3.5?

 

[montanafan]

Stopping down means going for a larger aperture/lower f stop.

Edit: Like from f/3.5 to f/2.8 etc.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Originally posted by: montanafan
Stopping down means going for a larger aperture/lower f stop.

Hm sorry now I'm a bit confused.. I used f 2.5 in that pic.. the lens only goes to 1.8... Does he want me to try it closer to 1.8 or closer to 3?

Oh.. ok.

Any disadvantage to going from 2.5 to 1.8?

 

[montanafan]

Closer to f/1.8, but it looks fine to me. Individual tastes ya know.

 

[hemiram]

Nice pics.

The cat looks almost exactly like my old cat, Orville, who is long gone now.

He was 17, not a bad run.

 

[montanafan]

Any disadvantage to going from 2.5 to 1.8?

Little less depth of field, but more light entering the lens and making photo brighter.

 

[tfinch2]

Wahoo, more pet test shots.

 

[kyutip]

montanafan,
I think you got it backward.
Stopping down means making the lens aperture smaller, hence the big number (2.8 to 4, or 4 to 8)
This usually for sharper image.

Open up is the other way around (f4 to f2.8)
This produce really shallow DoF.

LordSegan,
I assume you have the 50mm f/1.8 lens.
I think this lens sweet spot is from f4 to f/11.
But for me f2.8 is good enough for me if I need natural light.
f1.8 DoF is razor thin so be careful.

 

[montanafan]

There's a good tutorial here if you're interested.

http://www.photo.net/learn/

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: montanafan
Stopping down means going for a larger aperture/lower f stop.

Edit: Like from f/3.5 to f/2.8 etc.

Wrong

 

[Pho King]

It really depends on how much you want to blur the background (bokeh is the term). So if you want the subject to really stand out, you want to set your lens to f/1.8. If you "don't care" about depth of field, set it to an aperture of like f/11 (more light entering the lens). If you want the background in focus as well, set it to f/16 or higher.

But remember there's more to it - everything is a careful balance of the "photographic triangle" - aperture, shutter speed, and iso.

I'm learning photography too right now. A book I highly recommend is "understanding exposure" by Bryan Peterson. It'll show you why you invested money in a DSLR over a point and shoot.

 

[kyutip]

"A book I highly recommend is "understanding exposure" by Bryan Peterson"

Thumbs up from me too.

 

[montanafan]

Originally posted by: kyutip
montanafan,
I think you got it backward.
Stopping down means making the lens aperture smaller, hence the big number (2.8 to 4, or 4 to 8)
This usually for sharper image.

Open up is the other way around (f4 to f2.8)
This produce really shallow DoF.

LordSegan,
I assume you have the 50mm f/1.8 lens.
I think this lens sweet spot is from f4 to f/11.
But for me f2.8 is good enough for me if I need natural light.
f1.8 DoF is razor thin so be careful.

Sorry, you're right, I just skimmed through and saw where virtualgames0 said, 2. Find better lighting! and assumed he meant to go for a larger aperture. Don't know why I repeated stopping down when trying to explain a larger aperture.

I like the exposure on the two pics, though it could have been a little sharper on the cat, I still like the effect.

 

[Goosemaster]

wow.

 

[PHiuR]

A book I recommend is writing down notes yourself and just take a HELLA pictures.

 

[vrbaba]

Originally posted by: LordSegan
Unfortunately, it was night, so I was a bit limited in my subject matter.

I took a pic of my cat and my mom's lamp.

Please feel free to comment! These are my first pics, if I did something wrong or if I could improve technically, please tell me!

Files are 3mb!

DSC_0016.JPG

DSC_0011.JPG

Smaller Versions (800x600)

DSC_00161.JPG
DSC_00111.JPG

why does the chair still come out a lil blurry

 

[PHiuR]

Originally posted by: vrbaba

Originally posted by: LordSegan
Unfortunately, it was night, so I was a bit limited in my subject matter.

I took a pic of my cat and my mom's lamp.

Please feel free to comment! These are my first pics, if I did something wrong or if I could improve technically, please tell me!

Files are 3mb!

DSC_0016.JPG

DSC_0011.JPG

Smaller Versions (800x600)

DSC_00161.JPG
DSC_00111.JPG

why does the chair still come out a lil blurry

because the focus is on the lamp and he's useing a wide aperature so the depth of field is shallow(er)

 

[montanafan]

It's bokeh - shallow depth of field to emphasize the subject and blur the background.

Edit: I'm assuming that you mean in the cat pic, but assuming has gotten me already in this thread.