Beginner w/First DSLR. C & C?

Newbie to the forums, heh. Hello everyone!

I've had my Rebel XTi for a few months and would love to know how I'm doing and what I could improve on. I've mostly been shooting close-ups of flowers so here are a few of my favourites. I used the standard 18-55mm kit lens for these.

peachylemonade,

for a beginning, these are pretty good.
I particularly like the 1st one...if you could have avoided the highlights at the bottom, this would have been super.
18- 55 is not the best for flowers, though used skillfully, it can render some great images.
It is best not to shoot flowers in bright/ direct sunlight.
Exposure is difficult to control and harsh shadows that make an appearence can mar an otherwise good pic.
An overcast day or shooting in shaded areas would serve your purpose the best.
Reds sre difficult to expose, generally getting overexposed.
Take a spot reading off the red and underexpose by 1/2 to 1 stop...use bracketing.
Also the histogram on your cam is a good friend....garner help there.

Hope that helps.

rgds
pushpinder
PS:
If you allow me, I could post a couple of pics with the 18- 55 as examples...

#1 is interesting, but it gets lost in the background. Try a different angle or find another specimen with the background in the shade.

#2 looks out of focus or perhaps it was swaying in the breeze. The two flowers are not differentiated enough, making it look like one object with parts severely out of focus.

#3 is completely washed out. Don't trust you camera meter when your subject is either very much lighter or darker than the surroundings. It looks like this one is as much as two stops overexposed, causing a complete loss of detail.

Think about taking your subjects out of the center of the image occasionally. It's generally a more pleasing composition. When you're shooting closeups, a tripod is useful. Close proximity exaggerates movement.

The "retina searing colors" seem pretty much normal to me.

Nice shots! Nothing to complain about, and you seem to have depth of field under control on each shot.

they aren't anything special.. nothing pops on them.

for a beginner.. they are good..

Robert_Lay wrote in post #5578715
The "retina searing colors" seem pretty much normal to me.

Nice shots! Nothing to complain about, and you seem to have depth of field under control on each shot.

Thank you for your feedback everyone! I'm just getting to know my camera in so many ways and every bit of advice helps tons - especially when it comes to the over/underexposure of things! I'll definitely try and work on my composition some more, I did notice I tend to place things right smack in the middle of my photos.

pushpinder - What kind of lens would be ideal for flowers like these? I'd love to see examples of the 18-55 if you want to share them!

peachy,
I have used the 70- 200 f4 L with very good results

posting some pics with the 18- 55...hope you like them

PeachyLemonade wrote in post #5579269
What kind of lens would be ideal for flowers like these? I'd love to see examples of the 18-55 if you want to share them!

Wow, those are beautiful! I especially like that first one with the orange flower. Was that in a light box?

Would shooting in RAW help with colors as well? I had that suggested to me for the red problem also. I was thinking of at least giving it a try in a kind of test photoshoot if I can get an overcast day without rain over here.

And thank you for the lens suggestion! I was thinking of a 50mm f1.8 lens but I'm starting to think that might not be very good for flowers like these, heh. What might that be good for?

thanks peachy..
the 1st one was shot with a white colored car in the bg....no light box here!!

To be honest, I shoot jpeg...no raw, so cant tell you much there.

The 50mm 1.8 is a great value for money lens..very sharp and pretty good for portraits.

rgds

PeachyLemonade wrote in post #5580207
Wow, those are beautiful! I especially like that first one with the orange flower. Was that in a light box?

Would shooting in RAW help with colors as well? I had that suggested to me for the red problem also. I was thinking of at least giving it a try in a kind of test photoshoot if I can get an overcast day without rain over here.

And thank you for the lens suggestion! I was thinking of a 50mm f1.8 lens but I'm starting to think that might not be very good for flowers like these, heh. What might that be good for?

Wow, that must be one CLEAN car! lol!

I was thinking about doing portraits so that's great that I'll be able to do that with the 50mm. The price has definitely got me looking into it.

I tried another photo today of one of my cats with the 18-55mm, but it looks almost out of focus (I need my eyes checked anyhow, it could just be me).

hey PeachyLemonade, i am in the same boat as you as i had just gotten my XTi 2-3 days ago and i have noticed already that the 50mm 1.8 less than 100 does a way better job at taking photos than the kit lens. I would def recommend the 50 1.8 or 50 1.4 if you have the extra $$. Especially flowers and portraits from my limited experience.

i like the first 2 flower shots they show the DOF pretty well but the background could be blurred a little more, that would change with the 50

my 2cents

Phil

PeachyLemonade wrote in post #5590388
Wow, that must be one CLEAN car! lol!

I was thinking about doing portraits so that's great that I'll be able to do that with the 50mm. The price has definitely got me looking into it.

I tried another photo today of one of my cats with the 18-55mm, but it looks almost out of focus (I need my eyes checked anyhow, it could just be me).
...

Could I get something more crisp with that 50mm if I put the F-stop down lower and the shutter speed up higher?

Dear Peachy,
Any lens (not just the kit lens or the Nifty Fifty) will have a deeper depth of focus as it is stopped down more and more. Also, for a given scene brightness, for every f-stop change in aperture, there will have to be a corresponding change in the shutter speed or in the ISO setting in order to compensate for the change in aperture. In other words, there is no free lunch.

Now would be a good time to learn more about Depth of Field, and the best way that I know of is this web site:
http://www.dofmaster.c​om/dofjs.html

I should also point out that depth of field is also a function of focal distance - not just aperture. Keep it simple initially and try to understand what happens as you change only one parameter. As soon as you try to change too many things at once, the picture gets blurry (sorry for the pun).

Oh wow, thank you very much for that website link! I bookmarked it for future use. Making the most of Depth of Field is definitely something I want to learn more about, especially since this is the first camera I've ever had that has such amazing effects with it.