littleking,

That looks like a mighty fine dog and some really great pictures! I normally leave my D70 in auto white balance and that works great most of the time. I also shoot RAW so I can easily change the white balance when I convert my RAW images in Photoshop.
For your first two photos you apparently used a fast shutter speed and that works well with a fast moving subject. However, for photos #3 and 4, you could have lowered your shutterspeed and closed down your aperture some more to get more depth of field; that way more of your dog would have been sharp. Particularly in shot #4 the slight blur of the left eye is rather noticeable and the eyes are the most important part of a portrait to be sharply in focus.
You certainly got a winner in the D50 and enjoy!

Frans Waterlander
pixographer

thanks for the tips!!! is there anyway to adjust that when using auto? or should i use aperture priority mode?

i'm having a heck of a time using aperture priority mode lol

i cannot figure out what aperture works good with what exposure compensation... i usually end up with a picture that is completely black or is blurry if you can see it..

keep in mind this is my first SLR and i've only had it a week

littleking,

Only a week? Wow! Hang in there and things will become clearer all the time. Normally you should not use exposure compensation at all. Auto exposure will work just fine under most conditions.

When you use aperture priority it means that YOU choose the aperture or fstop, not the camera. The camera chooses the correct exposure time depending on lighting conditions and what aperture you choose. So in this mode you set the aperture to a number that works for your conditions. In case of the dog head close-ups I would guess an aperture of 11 or 13 or 14 or even higher would work well. Play around with it to learn the effect of changing the aperture number.

Now if freezing action is important you can set the camera to shutter speed priority which allows you to choose the shutter speed; the camera will then use the appropriate aperture for the situation.

It's probably a good idea for you to get some basic books about photography to speed up the learning process. I can recommend books by John Hedgecoe.

Frans Waterlander
pixographer

awesome! i just ordered a book off of amazon, but im sure you will hear from me sooN!

I got my D50 this past Christmas and absolutely love it . . . One little tip that helped me a lot is this: That little book is too small to use well. Go to the Nikon Website, download the manual in Adobe PDF at full size. Print that and put it in a binder. Presto! A full size book you can write on and use easily! Also note that when using the shutter or aperture priority - the light meter in the viewfinder ( o----|----+ ) will tell you if you're setting yourself up to be over or under exposed. The bar will travel -visibly- left or right and you simply have to roll the wheel to get it back into the center. I prefer the Manual settings because it allows you to control both . . . but you will get more comfortable with that in time. This is a great tool . . . not a "snapshot" camera so don't get lazy with the auto setting (it's easy to do ) . . . Experiment! The film is cheap enough, huh?

I also got my first SLR (D50) for a week now and i've been taking pictures with it. i played with night shots last night and posted it in the gallery. i always bring the camera with me every where i go. great cam for a beginner.

Use manual mode its easier, believe me or not. The D50 has a great meter, use it!!!

I got my D50 a wile a go and I

great tips & info! thanks.

Quote:
Use manual mode its easier, believe me or not. The D50 has a great meter, use it!!!

I can totally vouch for that. Even though I'm new to SLR I've found that the pictures are much better using the manual mode and adjusting myself.

I would suggest picking a subject and taking it in various modes and overexpose and underexpose it just so you can see how the pictures change.

Having that auto sure is nice at times for a newbie though :0)

D50's rule!!!