New camera! Windmills & Cityscapes (large images).

[Bill Beaton]

The moment I got my new camera, a Nikon d70s, I picked up my phone, coat and mp3 player, and headed outside to take some pictures. It was a nice sunny day.

What do you think? Please comment.

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_00181.JPG
One of the first pictures I took with the camera. Made sure it was a goodun.

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0211.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0210.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0208.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0206.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0205.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0193.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0134.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0216.jpg
STOP... and enjoy the sunset.

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0129.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0119.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0103.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0102.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0017.JPG

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0105.JPG
A little colour editing was done here.

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0002.JPG
And finally... the photographer. In a dirty mirror, succumbing to the indulgence of a clichéd self-portrait.


And no, I don't live in the Netherlands - despite the windmils, dutch flags and pretty yellow flowers in my pictures!

[Chillipepper]

YEah very good. The flower one is particularly good. The colours are just so vibrabrant

Can I ask where abouts int he world you are? As I dont see many windmills like that where Im from *UK*

[Bill Beaton]

Thanks. I am in Ireland. The city ones are taken in Dublin. The rural ones are taken in the town of Skerries, north of Dublin city but within Dublin County.

[ukanfoff]

do u do any post processing with the shots? if so what kinda program u use and what do u do to em? whats the difference with the d70s and d70?

damn.. i should have gotten a nikon..

YOINK!

[Bill Beaton]

Kindly remove your pictures from my thread please.

In response to your questions. I use photoshop, but today I also used the program that came with my camera: PictureProject. It gives nice results.

There is little difference between the d70 and the d70s, apparently. I have only used the d70s, so you may as well just google for a comparison chart.

[ukanfoff]

mybad,its my second day here,,
its different in other forums.

anyone get paid for thier photos?

[Morbid]

Congratulations on a great camera, wish I had one of those.
Nice photos, the best one would be the one with the row of houses. That one really catches my eye and is pleasing to watch. The nice light and the smooth houses and then the pale background. It sort of looks like toy houses.
I get a funny feeling from some of the pictures, for example the one with the stop sign. The trees and everything looks unnaturally bright with just a sunset as a light source. Is it multiple exposures, or maybe just edited in photoshop to bring out the shadows?

[Bill Beaton]

Thanks Beiijing. I wouldn't remove the wires, I like what they add to the composition. Also its another texture and aspect of the picture. Looks good to me.

And yeah, lots of cranes in Dublin. It's a changing city. Makes for a hectic skyline.

Morbid, thanks. I think I achieved what I wanted to achieve with the colours, then. On the houses.

I did edit the STOP picture quite a bit - I first replaced some overexposed areas with a lighter tone (light yellow) which was present in reality anyway but did not get captured. Then I lightened the stop sign to bring more attention to it. I also did the same to the flowers.

Usually I wouldn't like to change an image so much, but I really liked the composition of this image when I saw it before me in reality, and so I tried my best to recreate the scene despite a poorly executed shot.

[Morbid]

I see. Nothing wrong with that, just that it jumped out at me as unnatural. I also feel like the shot is to cluttered. I like the idea and the concept 'Stop and watch the sunset', and think you should put more focus on this idea. The trees and flowers while nice, dont add to it. What if you cropped the shot a bit tighter around the sign and the sunset? To get closer to the subject and remove whats not important helps bring the subject out more.
Just some thoughts.

[samsite999]

stop> its hammer time, did i see that on the sign of am i going mad?

[Bill Beaton]

Ukanfoff, I found this video which shows the differences between the d70 and the d70s. http://reviews.cnet.com/Nikon_D70s/4660-6501_7-6268233.html

Morbid, thank you very much for your input. It's interesting to hear your interpretation of it. For me personally, I actually like the "clutteredness" of it, and I think it all works together quite well. I see what you're saying though. I understand your point of view.

Sam - indeed! I didn't actually notice until I saw the picture at home. Hehe.

[claudeEGYPT]

Congrats Bill!

These are just eye blowing...
My favorite two are the Flower one(photo 1) and the train track one(photo 14)
However, here's some comments..

Photo 1 is brilliant, although i dislike the tree to the right of the flowers, my suggestion is that you crop those out.

I also noticed some photos are trying to capture a very large scene, and arent capturing a certain subject/object in particular. Not that that's bad, but i dont see it as artistic(composition-wise)

My final suggestion is, put frames around your photos, trust me, they really help.

Fine work... keep it up.. i look up to your work always!

[Bill Beaton]

Thanks Claude!

I do see an artistic side to the composition of those shots you mentioned, though. I like how they put the village into perspective. And on a more simple level, I just like how it looks. I like the imbalance.

I do usually frame my photos, especially when I submit to deviantart. For this thread it was more of a space-saving measure, not to frame them.

Here's a quick shot - just playing with light indoors. Not nice weather today.

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/euro.jpg

Hopefully I will get some more photos, in this coming week, depicting college life, as I'm going to try and enter a contest at my university to get one of my pictures on the front cover of the Student Diary (which all 15000 students get!).

Only tricky thing, is that I have to get the permission of those whose photograph I take... Otherwise they can't use it! :(

[Lauren Short]

cheers, and congrats on the new cam, i picked one up a few days ago myself :teeth: except i only took some crappy blurry shots of stuff to mess with menus vs your awesome work on your first day :sadcheerleader: :P

[Bill Beaton]

Aj, I had a similar camera before, except not digital.

The best pictures are borne from exploration (of one kind or another), imo.

http://www.nudnik-headache.net/foto/DSC_0064.jpg

Here's another pic that I forgot about, taken on the same day as the others. Played with the saturation.