Advice please

Dearg- Doom

Hey guys I'm a total novice at photography, looking for some advice on how to improve my photos I mostly take photos of horses and landscapes, here are some pics of mine could ye tell me where I'm goin wrong Using a Nikon D40.

Ricky91t

Dearg- Doom wrote: »

Hey guys I'm a total novice at photography, looking for some advice on how to improve my photos I mostly take photos of horses and landscapes, here are some pics of mine could ye tell me where I'm goin wrong Using a Nikon D40.

The pics aren't tha bad for a nive no 2 is nice but no/1 has to much noise imo so id adjust the iso if i were you!

The photos are good though

Thoie

If I could actually do this I might be a halfway decent photographer, but someone once told me that when shooting large animals try to have the eye(s) in perfect focus even if that means the rest of the animal is more blurred - something like this (but better).

Now, if you can teach me how to focus on the eyes of a galumphing horse that'd be great

Ostrom

Sorry if this insults your intelligence, but I dont know how what you are familiar with

Do you have an editing tool? Adjusting the levels would be a great start to sort out your contrast. They are nice images, but a little dry, try some basic level adjustments and you will get nicer contrast. As they are they are a little 'gray'

(move the edge sliders towards the base of the first peaks either side of your histogram then use the midtone slider for overall brightness)

Using continuous focus should help with the moving horses in the field. For close up, try experimenting with wide apertures (put the camera to 'A' mode, and set it low, 5.6 or less and focus in on the eyes)

I really like the horses head image, well done! There is a lot of dead space in your landscape, the last one in particular. Getting closer to include something of interest in the foreground always helps, and placing the horizon on a third

It is always worth paying attention to your white balance settings also, I tend to use cloudy for outdoor shots, the shade setting may have worked well with the close up of the horses head. You will see the difference straight away, mess around with it outside, take some shots on all settings in different locations to get a feel for the variance, it will make all the difference. Dont worry about manually setting it for now

Borderfox

Nice set of shots, doesnt look like too much out bar a higher shutter speed.

Setun

efla wrote: »

Sorry if this insults your intelligence, but I dont know how what you are familiar with

Do you have an editing tool? Adjusting the levels would be a great start to sort out your contrast. They are nice images, but a little dry, try some basic level adjustments and you will get nicer contrast. As they are they are a little 'gray'

(move the edge sliders towards the base of the first peaks either side of your histogram then use the midtone slider for overall brightness)

Using continuous focus should help with the moving horses in the field. For close up, try experimenting with wide apertures (put the camera to 'A' mode, and set it low, 5.6 or less and focus in on the eyes)

I really like the horses head image, well done! There is a lot of dead space in your landscape, the last one in particular. Getting closer to include something of interest in the foreground always helps, and placing the horizon on a third

It is always worth paying attention to your white balance settings also, I tend to use cloudy for outdoor shots, the shade setting may have worked well with the close up of the horses head. You will see the difference straight away, mess around with it outside, take some shots on all settings in different locations to get a feel for the variance, it will make all the difference. Dont worry about manually setting it for now

I was thinking the same as the above when I looked at your shots. You can definitely tease out some more colour in the horse, which would really liven them up. Other than that and what efla said, just keep experimenting with composition.

CabanSail

Good effort for a Novice, keep trying.

PM sent.

Dearg- Doom

Thanks for all the comments really encouraging, its frustrating when you can imagine the shot in your head but then the horse moves or some setting isnt right and the pic turns out crap but hopefully I should get some better pics now after taking on board what you guys have said thanks again:D

City-Exile

I actually thought you were using a compact camera, until I read back over your post & see that you have a D40.
Were you using automatic settings?
You don't seem to have a good grasp on exposure & aperture.
Have a look on Google for basic information like this...

CabanSail

It's also worth remembering that what ussually happens is that we shoot a lot & pick the keepers. Most people don't show their reject shots. When I was learning the basics you would roll through 3 or 4 films of 36 exposures & be happy with one or two passable images. That used to cost real money each time you released the shutter. Digitial is so much better for learning the basics as the costs are minimal once you have the camera. Of course these days a lot don't bother about optics & leave it all on Auto.

starflake

Not sure what you think of this edit

smelltheglove

I'm quite new myself but there are a couple of things I would say to you:

Starflake has the idea in the crop, for a moving image recommendations often seem to be that the person, animal or object moving should be either moving into or out of the picture, so should be to the right or left rather than in the centre with a couple of exceptions - maybe if you are cropping tight because the main interest is the movement itself rather than the subjects movements in the setting.

Another thing that is so simple once you get used to it but can damage potentially brilliant pictures if you are not fully aware, is your shutter speed, if your shutter speed was a little higher you would have complete sharpness in the whole image rather than a slight movement blur of the hind legs in I think the 3rd picture.

Anyway, as I said I'm not long in it myself but thats just my c&c. Take on board recommendations you get as the people here are very helpful with all questions.