Very first time out

[tom611]

So tried out my coolpix L830 for the very first time and decided I would like to try out taking pictures of wildlife and landscapes. I have no prior experience with photography and I know all of these are probably not very good. But I wanna know what you guys think I should do to make my second trip fair better and please be honest. One thing I already noticed is the sun messing with a lot of these shots. Anything I can do about this?

 

[Eyelight]

Welcome.

Looks like a good start. You can either play with the in camera image editing or use post processing software to correct some of the sun issues. Post would probably provide more flexibility.

I think with the in-camera you can make adjustments after the shot is taken.

 

[nickt]

I don't know your camera, but I did a quick google... your camera has spot metering mode, you can try that to help on some of the backlit scenes. That would help expose the subject properly, but for sure would overexpose the bright areas even more.

Or try your 'Backlighting' scene mode. After selecting that scene mode you can then choose to turn HDR On or OFF. Try both. OFF fires the flash to help with the shadows. That could work well on very close subjects. ON takes two pictures (maybe more than 2, I can't tell from my quick read) and combines them. That might be tricky without a tripod.

You might be happy adjusting lights and darks in post processing like eyelight said.

Also take a look at focus modes and try single point focus. This can help for a bird in the tree or animal in the brush or any scene where YOU want to be sure of what is in focus. Otherwise, focus may fall on the nearest tree branch.

 

[mikew_RIP]

Welcome to the forum

 

[RocketCowboy]

Welcome to Nikonites, Tom! Some good looking pics there, looking forward to more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Krs_2007]

Welcome


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[tom611]

Thanks for the welcomes everyone!

Ran out again this morning before work to see what I could find. Got a couple decent bird pics.





Next day off I have I'm going to bring the tripod so I can get steadier shots more consistently. Finding wildlife in the first place is mildly difficult but then finding out the picture is blurry or the animal is not centered because I flinched at the last second is very frustrating.

 

[Roy1961]

hello and welcome