I'm new to the DSLR world and took a few shots today trying to learn the camera a bit. The tire shot was done in auto mode with a little Lightroom work done on it and I'm pleased with how it came out. Then I decided to try my luck by shooting in Aperture mode with the candle shot. I farted around with different settings until I found one that I thought looked decent.There is no post processing done on this shot. I know these aren't BW related but would love some feedback on them from you pros. Shot with Nikon D3200 btw. Now to save up for a good prime lens.

No pro here, but appreciate what looks good! Interesting shots also. A DSLR sure gives you many options on how you take pictures. Have fun learning.

no pro either but i have done a lot of BW 2 1/4x2 1/4 in the past and your tire shot is right up there with anything i have done or seen.
the detail in the tires,the shine off parts of them,the marks like the heart and so on could not be better.same with the gray scale and depth of field. you have a keeper there.

Playing around with post processing is a lot of fun. I use Corel AfterShot Pro, some nostalgia film settings, a crop.
Instead of changing camera setting in the field, I try to do most stuff in software and keep the original exposures on file. Lots of possibilities!

butthead

I agree with Butthead that playing around in the post processing is a lot of fun. I often have a hard time deciding on what I like better from a picture with so many different ways to present it.

One thing about digital is that unless all monitors are calibrated the image does not look the same between any two monitors. On the tire image it would be interesting to see what it looked like with a little more contrast. It looks a little underexposed.

I like the candle picture. In Photoshop I would use the dodge tool to in the lower right area to show just a little more illumination from the candle. That is one area though where the picture can really look different from monitor to monitor.

Thanks for the comments guys. I've got a headache from trying to learn all this stuff lol.

I hope you don't mind me making a couple quick edits to show what I was talking about. One more minor thing is the candle is not quite square, that is pretty easy to correct. I have to do that with a lot of my landscape shots as I never get the horizon quite level.

I see what you're saying Hobby, looks better with the warm reflection on the rocks.

Got one helluva sunset after the storm. I had to post this. Grainy now that I look at it and was on dark mode but the colors were unbelievable.

quote bbrown6057: "


Got one helluva sunset after the storm. I had to post this. Grainy now that I look at it and was on dark mode but the colors were unbelievable."

Really nice! Handheld, I assume?

yes, no tripod yet

I think you did great there with those 2 shots! In Lightroom if you select the "Lens Corrections" box it will automatically select the lens you used and fix the photo a bit (remove vignette, fix perspective etc). I find the vignette a touch heavy in the black and white shot...but many of my pics have a vignette too so I can't really say much I guess lol...I really like the candle shot. I think if you played around with your metering type you would see the difference that metering plays on a scene. A high contrast scene like that is a great scenario for experimenting with spot, center weighted and matrix (evaluative) metering. The metering mode you select will have a dramatic effect on the photo your camera captures.

Well done!

Those colours are incredible in your sunset shot there. Rainy days make for excellent landscape shots as moisture helps the saturation in colours really pop! I'm assuming your shutter speed was fairly slow there so a tripod would help crisp that up a tad. A good rule of thumb is to keep your shutter speed the same or higher than your focal length. So if your focal length was 24mm you would keep your shutter speed at 1/25th or faster to ensure you don't get camera blur. You made the comment about the shot being "grainy"...do you know what your ISO was for this shot? If you have Auto ISO selected it would likely bump up your ISO in a shot like this which would increase that grainy look. If you get yourself a tripod you can keep your ISO as low as you can to keep your pics nice and free of grain/noise and use a slower shutter speed to capture all those gorgeous tones in the sky.

Again, nice job!

Thanks for the tips Steve.

quote SteveElms73: "Those colours are incredible in your sunset shot there. Rainy days make for excellent landscape shots as moisture helps the saturation in colours really pop! I'm assuming your shutter speed was fairly slow there so a tripod would help crisp that up a tad. A good rule of thumb is to keep your shutter speed the same or higher than your focal length. So if your focal length was 24mm you would keep your shutter speed at 1/25th or faster to ensure you don't get camera blur. You made the comment about the shot being "grainy"...do you know what your ISO was for this shot? If you have Auto ISO selected it would likely bump up your ISO in a shot like this which would increase that grainy look. If you get yourself a tripod you can keep your ISO as low as you can to keep your pics nice and free of grain/noise and use a slower shutter speed to capture all those gorgeous tones in the sky.
Again, nice job!"

+1 great advice.