Photos Cheap gets his first dSLR

Thus finally... the cheap ******* has gotten himself a dSLR. It's tough, many things to learn. Many crappy photos. But today (second day with my camera) I went out to the city to shoot and learn something about my quite modest Rebel xti with the stock 18-55mm lens (was $30 more expensive than body-only and I had no more moneys). It was a rainy and dark day, plus I got there late so most photos came out blurry, few kinda alright ones (please teach me as most as you can, as quite some of you here are amazing photographers)

1.



2. Conversation in the street



3. Time Square



4. Girl _ red



5. Homeless Figure



6.



7.



Please leave a comment I want to know what you think... thanks

 

Is it really that terrible that it does not even qualify for any replies? =(

 

Quite the contrary, actually. Considering this was only your second day out with the camera, you took some fantastic 'street photography' style shots. You seem to have a natural eye, and the exposure/processing all fit the style of the images quite well.

There really isn't much I can add for the photos you've posted here. If I had to nitpick, I did notice that #6 appears to be a tad crooked. It looks like it leans to the right.

-monkey

 

the streets in the city tend to lean off to the curbs for better drainage, so in actuality he was quite parallel to the road...obviously that was sarcastic, OTOH for #6 he has no excuse! All kidding aside, #3 is great...I too am a fan of semi-desaturation. All together its a great set. What street was #7 taken on? Looks very familiar.

 

Yeah, dude... for this being your first day out, I'd say you've got some natural abilities. Love the washed out look.

Do people give you crap when you're walking around the city taking pictures of them? do you ask for their permission or just roll with it? I've wanted to do stuff like this but have always been afraid to do so, getting robbed of my $1k+ camera = bad day. I suppose Cincinnati is probably not worse than nyc, though. Thoughts?

 

Go out and take some pictures! I've been to Cinci a fair number of times and there are some neat places to take pictures there. If you're in a public place and they're in a public place there's no problem with taking pictures of people.

Picture 2 doesn't seem to be as interesting as the rest of the pictures, doesn't seem to stand out very much. How did you get the lighting effects in the last couple of pictures?

 

Well since it was my first day I'm not sure if I was lucky or not, but people did not care. Though it was kinda tough with bad lighting thus not being able to zoom in, nor capture quick shots. So actually few photos I took came out blurry because people ducked or turned after noticing I was taking a picture of them. But at least in NYC it seemed they had nothing against the picture taker, they just turned away or something. For #2 I liked the shadows on the face of that dude talking, I tried zooming in but it came out blurry (he had a great expression and arms up in the air) and it was a much closer shot. I did not want to walk closer to him because I'm sure they would've said something.

At night in the village though we had a drunk guy following us and preaching about Obama... shouting about change and so on. And then as my friend went into the bathroom and I was drinking coffee with my camera on the table, a drunk guy from few tables over came over and looked at the camera... hesitated as almost thinking of snatching it. Then he looked at me with his glazed over eyes, thought of the sentence which came out with quite a long alcohol induced lag and told me: You taking photos..?! You know I can... have the film taken for taki...ng pho... permiarghh ssion! The camera is... I tried to say as he interrupted me -Eh?! I can take your fil - the camera is off... see the lid is closed.... -whaaa..?! -it's off I said keeping my voice calm as not to instigate him... He looked away as distracted and with a lost interest in the situation. As he was walking away to the end of the bathroom line, an exquisitely dressed black gentleman with a hat and a long umbrella/walking stick slightly shook his head compassionately looking at me with a covert smile, as if saying "world is filled with dumbas**es who turn into duchebags after drinking."

 

You inspired by those Sprint commercials? If so, you pulled it off really well. If not, you still pulled it off really well, and are quite creative to boot.

In #3 you've got some weird disembodied bits of people... not quite sure how. It looks like it's the result of compositing several long-exposure shots. I'm assuming you were using a tripod or at least a monopod, right? An "I love New York" ghost just freaks me out a bit.

Also, may I have your ladyfriend?

 

Hrm. Cool. I like this drawing outlines with light thing - just an LED flashlight? I've often come across spaces in architecture that would cool with a person in them, not so much without. Might have to steal this idea.

 

Somewhere around 10th and Bleecker.

I used a little fluorescent closet light that uses 4 AA batteries. Looks something like this. And I set the camera for 30sec exposure. Now I'm looking for more color portable light sources.

Actually I've seen some inspiring light painting photography before Sprint used the idea in ads. So the ads made the idea more mainstream and less unique, but I still wanted to try it out (my old camera had 3sec max exposure so I just barely could draw a flower).

#3 was no tripod, just a quick panorama shot (4 images). So the cut up people are the result of stitching... What do people do with such ghosts? Do you try to fix them/edit them out? As for the lady friend... it was the first time we went out (I met her in my class) and apparently she had fun so I can't wait for the next time. So sorry Firehed, I'm bad with girls already to let you have her.

So does a strong horizontal line ussually make the photo more pleasing and balanced? I assume that unless the photo is purposely on an angle to be more dynamic or lead the eye is one thing; but then if I'm just taking the photo I guess I should just align the edge of the frame with the horizon. Is there any negative to just digitally rotating and slightly cropping it as oppose to taking the time to adjust the tripod?

 

Yes and no. In #4, the improvised street style fits with the tilted angle. It gives an impression of a quick moment of time as it passes by, and everything comes together to create a complete image. Here, the crooked angle actually adds to the final look.

However, #6 doesn't really follow that same style, so the crooked horizon doesn't add anything to the image. You [i[could[/i] rotate the image during post processing, but you'll eventually lose a bit of image quality. Depending on how much you have to rotate, there might not be much loss at all, but as a rule of thumb it's always better to get it level before you fire the shutter.

-monkey

 

Wow, Cheap...I'm impressed. I love the Times Square picture, and the homeless figure. And who's the girl?!

 

#7 is a great shot.

 

I love the whole drawing with light thing and now I want to go experiment with it!
*steals the female*

Also like number 3 though at first I thought the curve in the buildings was lens distortion but now I realise that it appears to be combined exposures, mostly noticeable because of the disjointed angles on the windows.

 

liking these a lot - you've got some natural talent

 

I think your on the right track. Great shots.
Dslr is a wonderful thing.

How long did it take you to get good with the light ?

 

just wanted to say that the light shots look awesome

 

Not that many actually


1. First test shot. Tried to draw a spiral around a postal thing. (Thought it was 30sec shutter speed but it was 10)
2. tried to draw a smiley face, same problem as before.
3. Too dark for camera to focus, Focuses when the flash is open (does the blinking flash thing) but don't know how to just focus but not use flash. (please help)
[drunk Obama supporter bugs us]
4. The homeless light figure
5. bike rider
6. I ask her if she wants to draw something, she tells me not to look, and draws boobs... I love her
7. I test the exposure in another better lit street
8-9. Shutter speed still at 10 sec so I only managed to draw 1 wing
10-11. These came out alright though she was cold and it was difficult to stay still for 30 secs.

Thanks to everyone for comments. As for the girls, she's just my new awesome friend.

 

Oh, very nice... I like most of your pictures. Keep up the work and get better!

 

Absolutely agreed.
I envy the richness of what you achieved with your camera almost straight out of the box.
Didn't have time to respond first time I saw the thread. And honestly I didn't now what to say best describes it I think