Few shots by a photography newbie.

[jordy_wd]

Always wanted to get into photography but never really had the time or money to invest. Anyway I managed to save some money for a Canon 60d and an EFS 18-55mm IS lens - probably the most basic lens that I could get but I got them both for a great deal along with a decend SD card, battery, charger and lowepro case.

Hoping to get into photography more and obviously my next investment will be a better lens. Let me know what you think of the following photos, all taken within 24 hours of picking up a DSLR so please be nice! I edited a few of them with Apple Aperture just to see what I could do really. Thanks.

[dav3design]

Cool, glad to see you have made a good investment.

My advice is to shoot as much as possible, shoot different things, try new techniques.

Soon you will find what you like shooting and that will make you improve.

[jordy_wd]

Thanks, I'm really not sure what route I would like to go down subject-wise. At the minute I'm enjoying landscape scenes and buildings as, to be brutally honest, they don't move much and are easier to shoot as this stage. I understand all the basic settings now and can adapt to a scene quickly so I'm just going to attempt to (as you said) get around a lot of different scenes/settings/subject and improve that way. Tried a long exposure shot last night and also an HDR today:





Any advice is greatly welcomed, thanks again.

[Bokeh]

Wow compositions are great! :thumbup: Your pictures flow very well, have you had previous experiences with cameras?

[jordy_wd]

Thanks, and no I've no experience previously so I'm just trying to find what I like capturing and develop and expand on that really. My favourite spot is at that old bridge in my first post, I'm gonna go back once I've developed my technique a bit more and try and get better shots. Thanks for all the advice.

I really need to get a good lens, though it's not likely to be this side of December. This question will no doubt seem vague, repetitive and novice-like; but could anyone recommend a lens that would do-it-all? Focal length would be as close to wide-angle as possible, with a telephoto focal setting of 150-200mm. Max aperture would, at wide angle, not need to be any greater (less than) f/2.8 as I'll be outside and light won't really be an issue. Was thinking about the following:

Canon EF-S 18mm-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

I'll most likely get one second hand so price would be £200-300 second hand.

Cheers.

[michealis]

Some good shots there, the best advise is to get out there and shoot as much as possible.

For a "do it all" lens I would seriously consider the Canon 24 - 105 F4L. I know it's a bit short on both the wide and tele but the optics more than make up for it. That or look at the Tamron 18 - 270, that more than covers you.

[jordy_wd]

Some good shots there, the best advise is to get out there and shoot as much as possible.

For a "do it all" lens I would seriously consider the Canon 24 - 105 F4L. I know it's a bit short on both the wide and tele but the optics more than make up for it. That or look at the Tamron 18 - 270, that more than covers you.

I've had a look at both and the only thing that would sway it would be the price, also I have a 60d so the focal range is multiplied by 1.6x so the effective focal length is larger so I might try one out first. Thanks for the recommendations!

Few more shots:







The latter two images were taken at a Titanic Exhibit in Belfast, though unfortunatelythere are a few lamposts, telegraph poles etc placed rather stupidly between the building and the best viewpoints, so the photos are compromises really

[okbagonline]

thank for your sharing .Thanks, and no I've no experience previously so I'm just trying to find what I like capturing and develop and expand on that really

[the dingo]

Looks like you've got a good eye for it. Keep at it.

[jordy_wd]

Thanks guys, here's another photo from the Titanic exhibit in Belfast. This is turning slightly into a photodump, hope you all don't mind.

[Daffy]

I really like your eye for the placement of objects in your pictures.

I'd reccomend looking into purchasing Adobe Lightroom and maybe Photoshop as well. Even a little editing can turn an amazing shot into a breathtaking one. And in Photoshop CS6 you can get rid of those annoying lightposts ruining the angles you were talking about

Maybe also look into buying a set focal length lens. I have a 50mm 1.4 and I love it. The blur you get is amazing, and overall image quality goes up so much. But it really depends on what your planning on shooting. I just don't think a 200mm will benefit you much with the types of shots you're currently doing.

[Withers]

you can clone in lightroom too, no need to have photoshop for that.

[Daffy]

you can clone in lightroom too, no need to have photoshop for that.

I didn't realize that, my bad. But from what I've heard the one in Photoshop is a lot better for simply getting rid of objects. The clone stamp works too, but takes a lot more work and doesn't always end up looking as clean.

[jordy_wd]

Cheers guys. Yea I've got the entire CS6 suite along with Lightroom 4 and I've also Aperture by Apple which is decent too.

I'm gonna hopefully be doing a bit of sports photography along with landscapes too so ideally I'd like a REALLLY wide lens - Sigma 10-20mm - and a telephoto one too.

I'd love the Canon EF 24-105 f/4L for 'everyday' shooting - but how good would it be for sports?

[Daffy]

Cheers guys. Yea I've got the entire CS6 suite along with Lightroom 4 and I've also Aperture by Apple which is decent too.

I'm gonna hopefully be doing a bit of sports photography along with landscapes too so ideally I'd like a REALLLY wide lens - Sigma 10-20mm - and a telephoto one too.

I'd love the Canon EF 24-105 f/4L for 'everyday' shooting - but how good would it be for sports?

No worries mate!

I'm not too intune with sports photography, but I feel like you'd probably want at least a 200mm for it depending on the sport. I tried shooting a brothers football game with a 50mm and found that was WAY too small. So I'd imagine around a 250mm is where you'd want to be for that, depending again on whether you have a crop sensor or not.