First time shots posting

[Parklife]

Had a D80 for a while now and been learning how to get better pictures. Here's a couple I took today - trying to get the misty sea affect....don't think this is a great one, but my best one so far! Any comments gratefully received!

[Jitetsu]

Welcome

You've asked for comments so here's some constructive feedback. Great to see a new face.

I can see what you're trying to do with the first shot. Forgive me as I start on a fairly punishing list of things to help you. You've got at least 11 bits of dust or crap on your sensor or lens. They're the small blobs of darker areas, lots of them near the horizon and good go with a rocket blower should sort them out. I can't quite identify the main point of focus or what the shot is trying to make me look at. It's a nice collection of rocks but there's nothing that screams "look at me". Your colours are fairly unexciting and could be spiced up with a polarising filter or post-processing. It could well be that it's a true representation of the actual scene.. but it doesn't sell it to me. Finally you've got a few extraneous elements in there. There's a red blob (bouy?) in the top and a little bit of rock in the bottom right etc. I often read that knowing what to keep out of the frame is as important as knowing what to get in it.

Often the beach shots I see here (and the long exposures) have a lot of foreground interest to lead you into the water, some silky water to guide you through to the sky and then some nice stormy sky going on.

Second shot looks fractionally over exposed. It's a good idea to go for black and white but there's no exciting shadows going on to make it leap out. You could try adding a coloured filter to it as post-processing but I doubt there was much colour going on anyway.

[tobias3]

agree with the above poster. You need to learn a few things about composition. Really good idea but there is very little to look at in the first picture. The second picture could do with some dramatic side light to bring out the textures. Maybe think of a slightly tighter crop too. Overall good efforts though!

[Paranormalist]

Wish the first shots that I ever posted were as good as that first one of yours.
The B&W photo doesn't do a lot for me though.

[Tobers]

Welcome to the photo addict's house! I like the movement you've captured in the first shot with the slower shutter speed. Good first try. The second has an interesting subject but it is over-bright which can usually be sorted on your PC afterwards.

Keep at it - we all love seeing new pics on here so lets have some more!

[Parklife]

Thanks for the comments......greatly appreciated

I did notice the marks and came to the same conclusion, but later shots these are not there, so not quite sure what it was. I was just trying to get the misty water effect, but the sea was probably too rough anyway. I had a polarising filter on, so obviously didn't have it set optimally.

The second one in colour looked awfully overexposed, so I converted to black and white and it was far better.

I know I have a long way to go....we all have to start somewhere

[alfienoakes]

Sensor dust tends to show up more at narrow apertures (high F numbers). Your first shot was taken in shutter priority. You've selected a long exposure and the camera has adjusted the aperture to f/36 to get a decent exposure. This has probably also caused the shot to look rather soft. In the second shot you're at f/4.5 so the dust is not noticeable.

Good effort on both shots. I think the first has potential, though you might want to look for a different angle to improve composition. I think you'll find that most people tend to shoot these type of images when it's darker, or using neutral density filters to allow for longer exposures.

[dazza74]

Even with using a polariser filter on the camera, I find I only really manage a proper misty water effect either at first light or when the sun has pretty much set or has set.