DSLRUsers.com

Hi,

I have created account on this forum today; I am new to photography too. So, I am as new as they come but I am learning quickly.
Recently, I purchased the D50 and 18-70mm f3.5-4.5G AF-S, 85mm f/1.8D IF AF and 50mm f/1.4D AF lenses.

It'd be fantastic to read your feedbacks on my snapshots. I will welcome any of your comments: constructive critique and even a giggle.

My gallery is at: http://www.pbase.com/amarkin

AMarkin

I have taken this picture at the Royal Adelaide show
earlier this month.

Nikon D50,Nikkor 18-70mm f3.5-4.5G AF-S.

Welcome Alex, hope you enjoy it here





ps none of those lenses need converting (joking)

Welcome Alex - wow..some nice gear to start your hobby. Look forward to having you as a long and valued member here. The vibe is great, and the people aren't bad either

Welcome to the forums Alex

Oh wow, the 85mm f/1.4 for a starter kit

You should enjoy and learn how to use this cream-machine.

Welcome to the forums Alex, quite a few nice lenses you have in your starter kit I gather with those F1.4 babies you do a lot of indoors shooting?

Yi-P wrote:Welcome to the forums Alex

Oh wow, the 85mm f/1.4 for a starter kit

You should enjoy and learn how to use this cream-machine.

Hi Yi-P,

I don't have 85mm F/1.4. I have 85mm F/1.8.

Alex, you have a mistype in your first post in this thread then, that is what Yi-p was going on. I thought the same thing, nice lens to start with.

cawdor wrote:Welcome to the forums Alex, quite a few nice lenses you have in your starter kit I gather with those F1.4 babies you do a lot of indoors shooting?

That's the idea. The 50mm F/1.4D has not arrived yet.
85mm F/1.8D is great. I am using it more than 18-70mm. Most pictures in http://www.pbase.com/amarkin/street_photography were captured with this lens.


I like this one:

Glen wrote:Alex, you have a mistype in your first post in this thread then, that is what Yi-p was going on. I thought the same thing, nice lens to start with.

Corrected

amarkin wrote:

Glen wrote:Alex, you have a mistype in your first post in this thread then, that is what Yi-p was going on. I thought the same thing, nice lens to start with.

Corrected

You had a lot of people myself included feeling a little jealous with that typo, not that the 85 1.8 isn't a great lens, just the 85 1.4 is on a lot of peoples wish list, just the price makes you my wallet sore.

amarkin wrote:
I like this one:

So do I Alex, that's a nice shot.

I normally prefer water flowing shots to be longer exposed to get the silky effect, but this shot works very well.
I think it's the combination of colours on the fountain and the individual water drops.
The sharp fountain/drops and soft dof effect of the background also works very well.
Now if you punched up the contrast a bit on the fountain/drops and desaturated the background a tad, I reckon you'd have a WOW shot.

Cheers
John

Welcome. I like the shot of the fountain as well, although you need to get the 1.4 - I can still make out the Gloria Jeans sign at the back - evil, evil, stuff.

P

If many like the shot of the fountain. How about this picture?

johnd wrote:
So do I Alex, that's a nice shot.

I normally prefer water flowing shots to be longer exposed to get the silky effect, but this shot works very well.
I think it's the combination of colours on the fountain and the individual water drops.
The sharp fountain/drops and soft dof effect of the background also works very well.
John

Thanks for your comments. I am planning to go at night when the lights under water are on. I will take a tripod to shoot pictures with long exposures to get interesting lightning effects.
First, I will wait when my fast 50mm F/1.4 arrives.

johnd wrote:Now if you punched up the contrast a bit on the fountain/drops and desaturated the background a tad, I reckon you'd have a WOW shot.

If I could only knew how to do this.

Nice shots here and welcome to the forum. I have photographed that fountain before in Rundle Mall. Looking forward to seeing some more stuff from you.

amarkin wrote:

johnd wrote:Now if you punched up the contrast a bit on the fountain/drops and desaturated the background a tad, I reckon you'd have a WOW shot.

If I could only knew how to do this.

Photoshop is your friend. However, it'll take a lifetime to know everything about him.

Most/all image manipulation software have the capability to selectively manipulate contrast, saturation etc.

Cheers
John

Ok I had a play.

Done using Picasa2

I'm feeling lucky
Auto contrast
auto colour

The above three did nothing - a sign of a very well exposed picture!

On to tuning. Yanked up the fill light about 35%
Also yanked highlights and shadows respectively about 40%

on to effects

Sharpen
Saturation - dragged the slider to about 40% to tone down the reds

Wuhla!

Print it big and frame it. That has WOW.
Cheers
John

Justin wrote:Ok I had a play.

Thanks Justin!

But I think I like the original picture better. This is one is too sharp and too bright. Well, that’s how it appears on my monitor.

I was thinking of a different method. Having two layers in the Photoshop: to de-saturate the background in the first layer and to increase the contrast of water drops in second layer, as recommended by John. Then merging two layer and voila; it may look better.

At the moment, I am learning various photography techniques and work on composures. Editing and enhancing pictures in Photoshop, well , maybe later when there's something worth editing in Photoshop.

Nope I agree - I've pushed it over the edge. More of an example of what you can do with some of the free tools out there.

However, I think with a tad of sharpening to bring out the water drops and some minor contrast adjustments (and a 'glow' to soften the hard edges)



anyway - all good fun - and it's tough to add a lot to the photo you took.

Here are few more pictures I like:

Street Musicians






Eucalyptus

AMarkin,

I have twice asked you, by PMs, to observe and respect our rules of posting here.

I see by your latest post that you still don't seem to quite understand those rules. I have amended your four most recent posts, each of which only contained just the one image, into one post, containing a link to each of those images.

To help you understand the rules, let me explain them, as clearly, the FAQ seems to have escaped your notice, despite you being referred to it twice.

THis is the "image review and critique section",: it is not the "hey, look at my images" section. If you want that, I would respectfully suggest you go elsewhere.

Unless you're showing a specific technique, there should be no more than four images in any post or thread. This is for the convenience of our members, because we've found that it's difficult to critique images when there are too many to view in the one set.

If you have more than four image, by all means, include a link to your gallery where the remainder of the images may be found.

But no more than four images in any one post or thread.

No spurious posts or cross posts. In other words, if you have four images, they should be in the one single post, not in four individual posts.

The maximum size of any dimension on any image should be no greater than 800 pixels. This is for the convenience of our members, because we've found that it's difficult to critique images when they are too big to fit within the browser window.

And the only images that you may post are those for which you hold permission. If the images are not of your own making, then you probably don't have that permission, and the best option is to post a link to the site where those images may be found.

Please now take a few moments to consider these rules, and please respect those rules, and the wishes of our membership base. You have been granted a fair bit of leniency, and I can think of no other person who has recieved, as you now have, three warnings.

Your respect is now expected.

Hey man,

Are you always grumpy in the morning? I've never met a moody person such as yourself. I understand you have the rules here.


No need to babble in 3 paragraphs when and if I make 4 posts in a row.

Please also see our FAQ where it discusses flaming. There are to be no personal attracks.

Is this really how you really want to conduct yourself?

Is it really that difficult to respect our rules? Rules that more than 2000 others seem to have no issues with?

Please now take immediate steps to review your conduct. I have been more than fair with you, and I have extended more than your fair share of my patience, which, in your case, has now reached its limit.

gstark wrote:Please also see our FAQ where it discusses flaming. There are to be no personal attracks.

That's right! Who started it in public?
Hey, close my account and make your life easier.

amarkin wrote:

gstark wrote:Please also see our FAQ where it discusses flaming. There are to be no personal attracks.

That's right! Who started it in public?
Hey, close my account and make your life easier.

Bye.

I have better things to do than deal with your infantile outbursts.

Please do not ever come back to these forums. Your attitude is unwelcome.

Alright, he is goner now?


Not my job here, but close and lock this thread?