First Picture, First DSLR | Portrait Photos | Photo Forum

Hi,

I’m so glad to have found the video tutorials on here. I am new here, and here’s my background:)
I have just picked up the camera again 16 years after taking an intro to photography class in high school. I’ve been using a point and shoot camera all this time, and never owned an SLR camera.

So far I’ve finished Lesson 17 of the EasyExposure video tutorials, haven’t read any other photography books/videos or tutorials.

Yesterday, I bought the Nikon D3100 with the kit lens, and took my first pics of the moving dogs. Very hard to do for beginners. Original pics were over exposed I think, so I Photoshopped them for brightness and contrast, that’s about it.

Picture with the white dog facing the grass:
Taken 30minutes before sunset
Manual
1/125
F5.6
ISO 1600
WB: cloudy day

Two pictures with dog facing the camera and facing side ways:
Same settings as above except for ISO 3200

What do you think of the settings I used? The photoshop manipulation–too bright or too much contrast? Improvement on cropping? What other things can I do to these pictures?