1st 4 (simple) pictures

[kemekal_d300]

CRITIQUE ON ANY OR ALL IS GREATLY APPRECIATED - THANKS

I just got the D300 about a week ago. Im using the Nikor 18-200mm, SB-800 flash and my batteries for my MB-D10 arent' working, so as soon as i swap them back for good ones, i'll have that as well - (barely purchased a circular Polarizer today)

I've been stuck in the house the majority of my time since having the camera due to crappy weather - Any suggestions or tips for what you do when you wanna take pictures outside on a rainy day?? or is that basically VERY CAREFULLY WITH AN UMBRELLA ??

Anyways, heres some small yard/in home pix - thanks for you're time

[CanonFan]

Compositions are nice but the two flower pictures are far too washed out and the top one seems to be lacking much DOF. I like the lock but, again, the upper right of the lock is a bit washed out and you lose detail. I really like the teddy bear photo - is this one in a series?

[kemekal_d300]

Thanks for looking over em'. The Lock , i kinda wanted it to be in focus twards the bottom where it was closest, and then lose that clarity twards the top -

The teddy bear one i really liked alot too, and had captured a couple 'poses' with it. I'll post up a couple others that i have. Thank you for the critique too CanonFan.
I'll be working on that DOF

[Frog]

Yeah, both the flowers are washed out and soft focus.
If you wanted the lock's focus to fade towards the top, then you got that but as kemekai said it is washed out on top. When I'm dealing with that much contrast or too bright a subject I try to find something to shade it a little or use my body to shade it if I can still get the right composition.
I, too, like the teddy bear and the vignetting works well.

[Greg McCary]

I won't comment on the flower pictures. I have been working on those myself, but the last one is great. It looks like something off of a kids show. Nice idea and good work.

[GB1]

kemekal_d300 - Welcome to the forum. I hear the 300 is internally a fairly significant improvement over the 200 in terms of JPEG quality. I think I'll wait for my 200 to die though

As as critique, first note that I don't normally get too excited about flower shots, unless they're exceptional. That being said, I really don't care for the first two because they're too washed out and blurry (in your defense, white flowers are hard to shoot). You do have a dark background - which is idea for white flowers - but the composition doesn't really lead me to any particular area on the first one, and they're quite soft (was the wind blowing? Your depth of field might be too shallow too). The second is better but there's still no detail in the white areas. I would underexpose a little, see what you get. The composition is probably too simple here also.

The lock shot I love. It has nice color, interesting detail, and excellent composition. The only part that I'm unhappy with is the depth of field - it's too limited. I want to see more of the lock in focus! and it could be a tad sharper too. Otherwise, just a neat shot you have here.

The teddy bear is a great idea - quite original. But there's too much negative space on the right, the orange cast looks terrible (this can probably be corrected in post-processing (PP)), and the top of the bear's head in the reflection is strangely over-lit.. not sure where that came from. Cropping and PPing it will help a lot.

Hope this helps. Welcome again...
Gb

[kemekal_d300]

First off - thanks Frog, Greg and GB1 - all the critique is great. And thanks for the tips as far as white flowers go - ( my yard is boring, besides yellow weed-flowers, whites about all i have )

The bright light on the head of the bean bear, i think that might be reflection of the flash. i faced the flash upwards as to not whiten out the shot (not sure if theres photography lingo for that word) And without thinking, i think it bounced off a mettalic lamp shade -

I added to the contrast/orange look, i think you're right and i might have over did it. At first i was going to go with the SEPIA look, and decided i'd go for something that'd look better for a ''warmer'' feel to all the light to dark brown in the picture -

i'll be going over all these to try to get the settings to where i can get these done the right way. i really want to try to learn what everything on that camera is for, and when to use it - so it'l be good practice

again thanks for the critique and the welcoming - i'll be sticking around