Just got a new dSLR -- thanks for all of your help from this thread, everyone!

I've never had anything other than a P&S, so I took my Rebel XTi out for the first time at a college campus around here on Sunday and took some pictures. I didn't really know what I was doing, so I just shot random pictures, played around with 1 or 2 settings, and then took a few more. My gf took a few also, but only the foot one is featured here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8815207@N04/

Comments? Critiques? Suggestions? What could make these pictures better (exposure levels, ISO changes, post-processing, angles, etc?)

 

Orientation: Horizontal (normal)
X-Resolution: 72 dpi
Y-Resolution: 72 dpi
Date and Time: 2007:06:10 02:31:46
YCbCr Positioning: Co-Sited
Exposure Program: Landscape mode
Date and Time (Original): 2007:06:10 02:31:46
Date and Time (Digitized): 2007:06:10 02:31:46
Shutter Speed: 169408/65536
Metering Mode: Pattern
Color Space: sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution: 4433.295 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution: 4453.608 dpi
Compression: JPEG


Do you guys know the difference between these DPI? Or it doesn't really matter?

 

hmm... i still havent taken my XTi onto my campus yet, i suppose i should.

 

Do it! I bet you have a beautiful campus out there in CA.

 

It doesn't really mean much.
As far as the latter one goes, your sensor's resolution is: 3888x2592
your sensor's size is: 22mm x 14.8 mm.

So that roughly works out to 4433 x 4453 pixels per inch.

As far as the former, I've never really understood what that means.
In the end, you have a picture X by Y pixels, and you're going to print that
out at size X2 by X2 inches. So that will be X/X2 dpi in the end.
(This assumes you print at the same aspect ratio).

So no, neither number matters as far as I know.

 

I like the hands one quite a bit, like you are looking down at your own arm.
I also like how you don't try to get your whole subject in the picture, and crop out part. Like 'Power' - it's like it's just smashing through the right side of the picture.
Cool.

I'd experiment a bit with your framing, though - take a look inside & outside the edges and see what adds to your picture and doesn't add to it. I think I would crop Yellows a bit tighter. You want some black & green around as framing, but if the yellows are your focus you don't need that much.

'overgrowth' is another good example, I think you just need the lower right corner of that picture. The overgrowth is more impactful that way. Right now the center of the picture is bare.

I wouldn't sweat ISO until you start pushing the boundaries of your shutter shake tolerance. Lower the better. Brightness is always to taste - I've always liked my pictures a bit darker than most.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, Chod! I think the toughest part is going to be figuring out exactly what to frame -- first instinct is to capture everything, but there's no creativity behind that. And it doesn't make for very interesting pictures.

And looking at tons of photos online leaves me more perplexed. There are some pictures I like, but I don't know why. Others I don't like and don't know why. Lighting? Angle? Color? Sharpness? Sounds like I need to work on the angle right now, but there is a TON left to learn.

 

Photography is an Art.

It's important to gain an understanding of what you like. Maybe just start with pictures you like, then collect and compare those. We all have our own preferences; our own styles. Although they tend to change over time.

Pay attention to what catches your eye, and try to think about why it caught your eye.
I think you are on the right track, at least you titled your pictures - and I assume the sequence was: you saw something, a theme/title comes to mind, and then you shoot.
Or it could be a splash of color. Or an interesting pattern.

I've found that photographers LOOK at the world more. I remember once me and another friend passed by a really wild looking statue. We just kept circling the statue, shooting it in different ways - different angles, different distances. Just exploring it, visually.

I find, of all things, sharpness is the least interesting of all of those. Sharpness makes a picture technically better, but I am more interested in colors & white balance, which really affects the mood/feel of a picture.

 

Looks like you're off to a good start. I like that you've shot a variety of subjects already, and are pursuing some interesting angles (Relax, Hands, Power). I will also second what ChodTheWacko said about being willing to crop part of the subject. I think it works in Laughs, as well as Power. I see you're already experimenting with DoF, as well.

Good stuff!

 

To go on more that Chod said, I look at everything. When I driving down the road at 80mph, I'll look at the sides of the road and think damn that would make a great picture. When I driving in the rural areas it happens many many times.

Your picture "Power" draws the eye into the photo from right to left, most people see things from left to right and being drawn into the picture is best to capture the way are minds work.


I think you have a pretty good eye. I like how you saw your Dad's Saber.

 

@ Chod - yep, you got it. The flower pictures were basically trying to capture a specific color, and see how that turned out. Experimental, really. Otherwise, it went like this: I see something --> title/theme --> take a few pictures of it. And I cropped the Overgrowth picture: I see an improvement, but there's still a ways to go.

@ wndrlst - thanks! Seems like the more pictures I take, the less I realize I understand about things like framing, angles, and so forth. And it's frustrating too, since very few of the pictures really captured what I was seeing/thinking at the time.

@jupitersolo - thanks for the L-R suggestion. And that saber picture is one of my two favorites. I took it last night after trying new angles, and the lighting made it look much more "historic", which is how I feel about it. My dad carried that saber in General MacArthur's funeral, and it has a special meaning to me.

 

One of the great beauties of digital, to my mind, is the instant feedback. It will really help your learning curve to be able to look at the photo, see that it wasn't what you were attempting, and try again until you get it. Of course, some of my favorites are happy accidents.

(If you see some weirdo named wndrlst made you a flickr contact, it's just me. )