Potential potentially?

[aliceat41]

I've been messing about with my Nikon D40 on and off for a year and now fancy taking it up a level and getting some sort of photography education. Don't want to get super arty or technical really, I suppose out of all the options, 'street photography' sounds most appealing although I would love to do portraits (but I know I have to get very techy for this). I've taken a few pics I'm quite pleased with, not really sure why most of the time - just like looking at them for some reason - I would be grateful if people would take a glance and tell me if they like them too? My flickr stream is 'aliceat41' and although it would be great if anyone could take the time to look at all the pictures, the ones I most want looked at are in the 'random messing about' folder. I'm hoping that although obviously I've a lot to learn, it shows that I might not be completely wasting my time? Ooh, it's quite scary this! Oh well, I can only get better I hope! Thanks everyone, Alice

[MGJ]

It would be easier if you posted a link to the picture/album

[aliceat41]

Flickr: aliceat41's Photostream

let me know if this is right, thanks

[aliceat41]

OK, so most of the time I DO know why I like a picture, I think the insecure part of me was trying to use the 'ignorance as defense' tactic. Be interesting to see if other people like them and why....

[IABoomer]

I recall at least one discussion here about having a "portfolio critique" section where people could post a link to a set of images and ask people to look them over. The powers that be didn't go for it, even though for things like this, or someone trying to find a direction, it might be a good idea.

You comment on a couple images about possibly needing a tripod. If your goal was to do longer exposures to get some motion blur, then I'd agree with you. If your goal was to simply get a good handheld shot, then I'd say don't be afraid to bump the ISO up some. Of the shots I looked at, most of them seemed to be at ISO 200. A little noise/grain look isn't always bad, and by bringing the ISO up, you can shorten the shutter speed and get less shaky handheld shots.

Another thing you might want to experiment with is getting the auto-focus off dynamic area and using a single point AF-S so you can better select what you want in focus. I would imagine there are probably shots that you see and want to grab, but the camera picks the wrong thing to be in focus and your intended subject ends up blurry.

Finally, along with getting off the dynamic area for focusing, you might want to experiment with changing the metering mode from matrix to center-weighted or spot metering. Some of your images looked to be a bit dark for the subject, and I'm thinking that the matrix metering was looking at the whole scene instead of a particular subject.

[aliceat41]

Yes I always seem to forget the iso, I've been so busy trying to get the SS and aperture correct that I keep forgetting about it! Must try harder.... I really do need to get a higher iso sometimes though as I often find that I struggle to get a fast enough ss for shots I want to have dof, I very guilty of sacrificing dof when I should be changing the iso.

Great advice about the focusing and metering settings, having had no classes and not being one for manuals, it never occurred to me to fiddle with those settings. I have tried off and on to use manual focus, but I dont seem to be able to get it work properly with my AF lens. I'm off on a digital photography beginners course soon so hopefully they'll teach me. Thanks for your comments!