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I bought myself a prime lens for Christmas, it's an AF-S 50mm f/1.8G Nikkor. The sun decided to play nice today so I took it out and tried it at the Refuge. I didn't take a lot of photos, but here are a few I thought came out okay.
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Congrats on the new Lens! The 50mm f/1.8 is a must have in any camera bag. A good all around focal range and f/1.8 is great for shallow DOF and also low light situations which call for wider apertures.
One suggestion: You might try adjusting your exposure a tad more to the right (brighter) because, especially in harsh sunlight, when you are underexposed you will lose detail in the dark shadows. For example, I pulled your buffalo image into Lightroom and, as you can see from the left side of the histogram, the shadows are crushed up against the left side. Basically this means that any detail in the shadows is gone. Even if I increase the exposure several stops, there is nothing in the way of detail that will come out of those shadows. Try shooting either at a shutter speed that is a little slower (within reason if you're hand holding) or open up the aperture if you can. Just be careful to keep any "highlights" from smashing up against the right side of the histogram or else you will lose detail in the highlights. This is called ETTR (Expoing to the right). The resultant image might look a little over-exposed, but in post processing you can adjust the exposure down again but you will still be able to bring the shadows up and recover detail.
You can see that the shadows are smashed up against the left side. Once this happens in camera, any detail that was in the shadows will be lost forever. I could brighten the image overload, but most of the dark areas would not show any detail.
One suggestion: You might try adjusting your exposure a tad more to the right (brighter) because, especially in harsh sunlight, when you are underexposed you will lose detail in the dark shadows. For example, I pulled your buffalo image into Lightroom and, as you can see from the left side of the histogram, the shadows are crushed up against the left side. Basically this means that any detail in the shadows is gone. Even if I increase the exposure several stops, there is nothing in the way of detail that will come out of those shadows. Try shooting either at a shutter speed that is a little slower (within reason if you're hand holding) or open up the aperture if you can. Just be careful to keep any "highlights" from smashing up against the right side of the histogram or else you will lose detail in the highlights. This is called ETTR (Expoing to the right). The resultant image might look a little over-exposed, but in post processing you can adjust the exposure down again but you will still be able to bring the shadows up and recover detail.
You can see that the shadows are smashed up against the left side. Once this happens in camera, any detail that was in the shadows will be lost forever. I could brighten the image overload, but most of the dark areas would not show any detail.
OP
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Thanks Bas, I do have a tendency to underexpose a photo.
OP
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Some more from today. I kept the ISO on 200 and the speed on 250, and just played with the f stop to make adjustments.
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It's easy to do, especially in bright daylight. Not sure what mode you shoot in, but if you're using any sort of auto mode (like Aperture priority), try using Exposure Compensation to bump up the exposure a stop or two.
OP
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Since I'm still trying to learn I avoid the auto settings most of the time. The only one I really ever use is Auto ISO, and then only sometimes. Once I get better at the basics, I'll start using the auto functions more.
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I like *442 & *448.
Have you set up for "back button" focus yet? Seems you tend to keep subjects in the center of the frame a lot. That works well for the first tree image (*442) though. With "BBF" you can isolate a subject with focus and recompose the frame to give it a bit more visual appeal, giving a subject some "room to move" so-to-speak. Your steer shot when cropped is an example and ∱-13 holds the DoF well.
Taking liberties with your image:
Have you set up for "back button" focus yet? Seems you tend to keep subjects in the center of the frame a lot. That works well for the first tree image (*442) though. With "BBF" you can isolate a subject with focus and recompose the frame to give it a bit more visual appeal, giving a subject some "room to move" so-to-speak. Your steer shot when cropped is an example and ∱-13 holds the DoF well.
Taking liberties with your image:
OP
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I did set up for back button focus, and then completely forgot about it while I was out.
442 was my favorite photo. I wish 443 had turned out as well as 442.
Doc, feel free to take liberties, if I were posting these elsewhere, I would be taking liberties. She was walking along and I did try to keep her centered, I took several shots of her as she approached and then passed me.
One note on the cow Doc, you'll notice she has udders, so not a steer. In fact, since our longhorn are allowed to basically live a "wild" existence, we have no steers on the refuge.
442 was my favorite photo. I wish 443 had turned out as well as 442.
Doc, feel free to take liberties, if I were posting these elsewhere, I would be taking liberties. She was walking along and I did try to keep her centered, I took several shots of her as she approached and then passed me.
One note on the cow Doc, you'll notice she has udders, so not a steer. In fact, since our longhorn are allowed to basically live a "wild" existence, we have no steers on the refuge.
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I didn't look for udders! My bad.
OP
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Living in cattle country, I think looking may be automatic. No one wants to look like a greenhorn.I didn't look for udders! My bad.
Celtic 77
Jedi Trainee
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Nice shots Oklahoma! Make me want to get the old OM1 out and shoot some Ilford... Best way to learn is on film IMHO. Seems most folks nowadays rely too heavily on kicking the digital camera out the door and make images without a basic knowledge of the simplest fundamentals of photography. Shoot in manual mode and you'll be that much better off. In the world of film, a canister of film was like a load of ammo... X number of shots, make them all count!
OP
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I try my best to stick to one ISO when I'm out and try my best to work shots out. It makes me feel kinda like I'm shooting back in the 90s again.