Do you like this?

[Darcy]

I'm 14 with a getting pro camera. I would like your thoughts and advice on this photo I took and edited. Thanks

[Dizzy]

Hi Darcy,

I like the subject, and am wondering what your point-of-focus (aka: POF) was?
The berries look just slightly out of focus to me, and the background blur is
somewhat distracting.

Do you happen to know what kind of berries those are? Almost look like
"rose hips", and I also found them to be interesting enough for a quick
shot when on a recent field outing (and yes, it was an awful shot..lol):

122311 004a.jpg

If the scenery looks like Abbotsford, it's because I only live about 40 kilometers
south of you in the upper Skagit Valley (US).

When trying to capture something like that bush, I've learned it's often
better to use manual focus, especially when you have a limited depth of field.
The AF seems to lock in on the more solid objects behind the subject, leaving
your primary image element out of focus.

I see in the EXIF data that you shot that at 270mm? What was your distance
from the shrub?

BTW, keep at it, don't get frustrated and soon enough you'll be posting
up some excellent pics. That D3100 is a good body, and a number of folks here
use them with superb success.

Mike

[Snarkbyte]

Hi Darcy, and welcome to CiC.

First, if you didn't take this shot from a tripod, you should have. Mounted on a D3100 body, a 300mm focal length is equivalent to shooting thru a 450mm lens, and 1/60s is just too slow for hand-held. Camera shake may explain the soft focus here. The general rule of thumb for hand-held shutter speed is 1/focal length, but you have to account for the crop factor (1.5x, for a D3100), so for this shot you would need a shutter speed of 1/450sec for hand-held. A stabilized lens can reduce this by up to a factor of 4 or so, but that just gets you to 1/110s. You might be able to get this shot hand-held at ISO1600, if you have steady hands and good technique, but most people would probably need a tripod.

The exposure is very good, and the composition shows promise, so keep at it, and post your images here for criticism. Don't get discouraged... the members here will help you to improve, but that necessarily means pointing out what's wrong. If you practice regularly, I'm sure you will be able to see significant improvements in your shots in just a few months.

[Geoff F]

For me, Darcy, there is simply too much there, particularly on the right side, so it is getting confusing.

I would crop to a smaller size, maybe 5 x 4 ratio, or even 4 x 5 and just concentrate on a smaller less confusing area.

Those twigs and berries on the left side to centre are less dense and have a light background behind them so they stand out better.

But this sort of shot is surprisingly difficult to get looking good. Most of my efforts on scenes like this get ditched.

You need sufficient depth of field to keep everything in sharp focus, but not so much that you then fail to blur the background. Mostly trial and error with me, and just hope that one of my alternative settings works OK.