My first outing with my new DSLR - CC's welcomed!

[ddodia]

Hi guys,

After a long absence I finally upgraded from my compact to a DSLR - I hope I did the right thing!.

Here are samples of my first 'official' outing with the new toy. All of these are also on flickr.

All hints, tips and advice are welcomed with open arms ...

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.

[kdc]

Crop the first picture to eliminate the foilage creeping into the edge of frame. other than that

[stevegreen]

They all look well exposed to me, what mode were you using? The swan shot is maybe a touch over exposed as you have blocked out the whites, having said that the difference in contrast is not particularly easy to handle.

Composition wise they are all pretty sound too, good use of the thirds in many of them. The only thing I would say is that maybe some of the subjects are a little 'plain', particularly number 5, that does very little for me.

Good start though

[dazza74]

First of lovely and sharp all these pics, good choice the 40D as a camera

#1

I like this, I'd be tempted to crop out the trees on the left to just leave the tree stump in the competition. Other than that I reckon you've exposed it nicely for the sky

#3

Like the sharpness and bokeh in this one

#4

Like the composition and again the exposure seems spot IMO

#6

Skies a little been blown IMO in this one but other than that


Wish I was taking pictures like this when I first got my D-SLR

[ddodia]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement - please keep them coming .

Originally Posted by stevegreen

... what mode were you using? ...

The camera was set to the 'P' mode ... (is that what you were asking ?)

[johnaalex]

I agree with the others, not bad at all for the first attempts (but how many "unofficial" ones were there before this first "official outing"? )

Swans are very tricky to shoot in bright light as the whites often get blown, so my advice is to seek out black swans

Keep up the good work and welcome to the fold

[stevegreen]

Originally Posted by ddodia

The camera was set to the 'P' mode ... (is that what you were asking ?)

It was

[ddodia]

Originally Posted by johnaalex

.... not bad at all for the first attempts (but how many "unofficial" ones were there before this first "official outing"? ) ....

there was one unofficial outing ... a half hour session when the camera and lens arrived on my doorstep. I tested it out in the fully automatic mode ... does this count ... ?

[ddodia]

Originally Posted by stevegreen

Good start though

Originally Posted by dazza74

First of lovely and sharp all these pics, good choice the 40D as a camera

....

Wish I was taking pictures like this when I first got my D-SLR

Thanks for all the kind words - they are much appreciated.

[ddodia]

Image #1 finally cropped ...

How's this?

Click for larger image.