Photos Beginner wants feedback

Hi
Im bought a 400D a couple of mounths ago and found that this photography thing is quite intressting. I was wondering if you could check theese pictures out and give me some feedback Im a total beginner so be gentle


This shot is of a Replica Beretta 92F
Taken with my 400d with 17/85 IS at iso200 TV mode 1/10 manual focus

Basically i want to know what is wrong? what could be better?
Heres a link to the fullsize image
http://www.galactus.se/wolverine/92F_1.jpg

Heres a few random shots the guitar pictures was shot with a Sigma 70/300 The guitar is my 1992 Gibson Les Paul Studio Ebony



And this is of an old beerbottle thats been used as an ashtray


Im quite happy with the images but since i dont know anything about photo teqhnuiqes id like some feedback from people that actually knows what they are doing

 

Well I for one love them all

 

Gorgeous tbh. Love the colour on 2 - it's so easy to make something B&W.

Pedantic asshole mode: #3 has too sharp-a-focus.

 

i tried doing a similar shot of the LP with my S5700 but it didn't come out as nice as that by a long shot, really need to get to grips with the manual settings.

The black and white looks great

 

Thanks

My problem is that when i take photos i take ALOT of them and then when i sort them out afterwards i find a few good ones. THe problem is that i cant remeber what it was i did that resulted in the good one and since i dont know what setting does what in relation to what its a bit of a lottery. Im trying to learn but its a bit of a jungle I want to be able to know exactly what i need to do to get the good shot and not just guess.

 

We have thw same problem me thinks!

The pistol looks absolutely brilliant. Any chance of a 1920*1200 crop of it for my desktop? Watermark it as well if you want

 

Look at your metadata to at least get an idea. But to really get the idea, steal a tripod, set it to manual mode, and shoot through different apertures and shutter speeds checking out what happens. Take note of what the exposure reading is (though don't live by the thing, since it's practically useless if you're not in spot metering mode which the 400d doesn't have, since you don't really know exactly what it's metering).

Anyways, great shots. A lot of it is just experimenting and see what happens, which seems to be working all right for you

 

Wow they are amazing shots, the guitar ones in particular are my favourite - keep it up, I'd love to see more!

 

Well ill just keep fiddling with the settings and ill make notes of what im doing so i can atleast get some clue to what is right

 

Yeah, there are tons of resources out there, but experimenting really works best. There are really so many variables that can come into play regarding focus and exposure that resources can only take you so far. You know how it can be with theoretical knowledge... it doesn't always work in practice. A lot of it can come down to educated guesswork. Use the built-in tools to figure out roughly where to start (light meter, etc), then use your knowledge to make it really interesting. The only thing a camera can really do well consistently is focus - it doesn't know that you want to expose for X light source and then use a fill flash to illuminate your subject, or whatever the case may be.

 

firehed is right, metadata is quite helpful (just go to the pics' properties), but lots of info is missing still. however, that crazy shooting is how you start in my opinion, I used to do the same until I started actually trying this and that with iso, obturator, macros, etc. by the amazing quality of the pics you posted, you'll get the handle of it in no time, my sincerest congrats, your pics are really great. the definition is so good that you actually convinced me to buy a canon eos 400d. there's no digital noise AT ALL in your shots, which is extremely nice. once again, congrats, and keep up with this photography hobby, you're great at it (much better than I am, and I've been taking pics for 10 years now!!)

 

Not a photographer so cant really give a comment which may be professional but from me they all look great good aspect etc and very nicely done

 

The black and white guitar shot is amazing - Unlike Bindi, I like the way it's focused. The colored one has too busy of a background for my tastes.

 

well i must say that i am a bit surprised over the very positive feedback here. I will continue to experiment and having fun with it and hopefully the pieces will fall into place by themselves this photography stuff is great fun and if there is a good result in the end its even better.

 

Have been playing around some more with my 400D and 17/85IS Heres the result

I Found a pair of really old boots that i thought looked very cool. Tried to get a bit of an old West feeling




Technofear


This one was made just for fun using a 5second shutterspeed and a LED


I might not know what im doing but im having alot of fun

 

That thing with the LED is awesome. Like that Sprint commercial



How are you doing the lighting on these shots? It looks like you're using some fairly well-controlled off-camera stuff, but that doesn't seem likely if you're just getting started.

 

Im using a small desktop lamp for the lighting. It not a piece of high end studio lighting but if theres one thing ive learned through all my casemods is to make do with whats available to me

 

LOL I used exactly the same lamp (IKEA, right?) for the shot that got me 2nd place in last months potm
A very good lamp for beginners