first time shooting feedback and how do i take better pix than these?

[lul77]

i really know nothing about cameras but wanna be able to take good shiny pics of my car. i borrowed my dad's d40x. i used the following settings f/8, exposure of 15-20secs, iso 100, auto white balance, and used street lamps as ambient lighting. any tips would be recommended as well as feedback on how my first attempt was.

these are the pics uneditted and then on the next post i'll show how i tried to sharpen them

[lul77]

[bmwturbopower]

you need better lighting than that, And your angles are a little weird. Try to stay away from those amber lights. It's hard to shoot at night with those.

[lul77]

Originally Posted by JNic335i

you need better lighting than that, And your angles are a little weird. Try to stay away from those amber lights. It's hard to shoot at night with those.

what do you mean my angles are weird? how should i correct them? i know that i'm supposed to shoot with the lighting behind me and thats about it. would it be better if the lights were more whitish? i couldn't figure out how to mess with the white balance to compensate for the orange lighting

[MCS]

Pretty good shots.

I like the pic with Ny as a backdrop.

My Suggestions

Lens -Get a 50mm F1.8 fixed lens. They are cheap and will get better low light night time shots.

Did you tripod your camera or put on a fixed surface?

Maybe put the camera on a timer and take shot so that pressing the button won't move it.

Try some different exposure settings.

[!Xoible]

oh man u suck pink warm wet stinky baboon balls man

jk

i love em they're good to me

[TWiTCHY]

What I did to teach myself how to take better pictures is to work with the background. You're already doing so, but keep the Rule of Thirds in mind. In the very first photo, you have two subjects, the car and the city in the background. Both are somewhat far apart from each other which makes viewing the picture hard - and then there is this open space half-way down the picture contained with nothing interesting. You want to shoot the picture with all subjects near the center.

Here's a tip, when you find a picture you like and you're about to shoot, aim the camera up a little bit and take out as much ground as you can. The sky is much more appealing to the eye than the ground.

You're doing very well for your first time though. I believe I was worse. Just keep trying and learn from other people's photos.

If you don't mind, I can show you some examples, or you can go to my Profile -> Album

[lul77]

thanks for all the feedback and comments guys

Originally Posted by MCS

Pretty good shots.

I like the pic with Ny as a backdrop.

My Suggestions

Lens -Get a 50mm F1.8 fixed lens. They are cheap and will get better low light night time shots.

Did you tripod your camera or put on a fixed surface?

Maybe put the camera on a timer and take shot so that pressing the button won't move it.

Try some different exposure settings.

thanks for the tips. i'll try it out next time. i used a tripod but i guess it shook a little from pressing the button or i didn't focus enough in manual mode.

Originally Posted by TWiTCHY

What I did to teach myself how to take better pictures is to work with the background. You're already doing so, but keep the Rule of Thirds in mind. In the very first photo, you have two subjects, the car and the city in the background. Both are somewhat far apart from each other which makes viewing the picture hard - and then there is this open space half-way down the picture contained with nothing interesting. You want to shoot the picture with all subjects near the center.

Here's a tip, when you find a picture you like and you're about to shoot, aim the camera up a little bit and take out as much ground as you can. The sky is much more appealing to the eye than the ground.

You're doing very well for your first time though. I believe I was worse. Just keep trying and learn from other people's photos.

If you don't mind, I can show you some examples, or you can go to my Profile -> Album

thanks man i'll try that... i didn't consider the rule of thirds but i did cut the sky and ground some in the pshop edit of it. and i'm deff checking your photos out

[TWiTCHY]

I just made a thread for people who are learning just like you