bokeh....

[Dark Prodigy]

When I first bought my dSLR I always wanted to know how to take those cool shots that has the sharply focused foreground and the nice blurred background. After a few years of slowly learning what it takes to take a real picture.. hint: it's not in automatic mode! Anyway... tell me what you guys think of my amateur bokeh shots...

Went out today with the ol' lady to Black Point Marina here in Miami, Fla and took a few shots as we walked the trail with my new lens.

Shot of the orchids on the sill before walking out of the door.

Some guys' bike in the parking lot. Has a nice "brochure" look to it. Think I'm figuring this stuff out some.

Couldn't do this type of shot with my kit lens 18-55mm...

Took a shot this little girls dog named "Bam Bam" .. finally got a shallow depth of field.

My chic wants me to frame this one...

...and this one!

Seems like I'm finally shooting real photos... I still need to figure out how to change the aperture but maintain deep crisp color without having to change the black levels post process. All photos untouched btw.

 

[madFive]

Good to see you're making progress! Keep practicing, and for the love of god, start using straight manual mode asap!

Yeah, the way to get shallow depth of field is to use a wider aperture. What is the new lens you're using? If you're in the market to pick up more any time soon, you want to make sure you get ones that are capable of wider apertures, like at least f/2.8. Even wider like f/1.4 can give you much shallower depth of field, and will also give you really good low-light capabilities with your camera.

If you're not getting the black levels you want when using a wider aperture, this is very easy to fix. Just use a faster shutter speed, or turn down the ISO level. It's very easy to make an exposure darker if it's too bright, but not so easy to brighten it up if there's just not enough light in the scene to begin with.

Oh, and don't be afraid to post-process. A lot of the photos you posted are really good, but most of 'em have a really flat look that would be really easy to fix in LightRoom - nothing wrong with that at all.

As far as other criticism I can offer, you should really start looking at improving your compositions now that you have a pretty good handle on the mechanics of the camera. A book on design and 2D composition may go a long way toward giving your photos a more memorable and eye-catching quality.

Have fun with it - and keep up the good work!

 

[Dark Prodigy]

Good to see you're making progress! Keep practicing, and for the love of god, start using straight manual mode asap!

Yeah, the way to get shallow depth of field is to use a wider aperture. What is the new lens you're using? If you're in the market to pick up more any time soon, you want to make sure you get ones that are capable of wider apertures, like at least f/2.8. Even wider like f/1.4 can give you much shallower depth of field, and will also give you really good low-light capabilities with your camera.

If you're not getting the black levels you want when using a wider aperture, this is very easy to fix. Just use a faster shutter speed, or turn down the ISO level. It's very easy to make an exposure darker if it's too bright, but not so easy to brighten it up if there's just not enough light in the scene to begin with.

Oh, and don't be afraid to post-process. A lot of the photos you posted are really good, but most of 'em have a really flat look that would be really easy to fix in LightRoom - nothing wrong with that at all.

As far as other criticism I can offer, you should really start looking at improving your compositions now that you have a pretty good handle on the mechanics of the camera. A book on design and 2D composition may go a long way toward giving your photos a more memorable and eye-catching quality.

Have fun with it - and keep up the good work!

Thanks for the very valuable advice. The lens is a Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.8. I was thinking about the f/1.4 version but didn't think I needed to pay the extra $250 premium over the f/1.8. I didn't realize until recently what I needed to do to achieve "bokeh" and that it wouldn't happen with the 18-55mm kit lens that came with the camera.

Also, these are my first shots without using "automatic" mode on my D40.

 

[WozniakMac]

Nice pics, but be careful when using a wide aperture lens up close because you will get more out of focus than you want. For example, I cannot use my Canon 50mm 1.2L up close or I get the nose in focus, but the eyes and everything else out of focus. The wider the aperture, the more you have to pay attention to distance and the focal plane that you are on versus your subjects focal plane.

It takes some work, but you will learn more as you shoot.