Very poor quality first photos

I recently got my newest camera, a Nikon D40. I know 2 people who have them, and I've always been amazed by their photos. However mine came today, and out of 233 photos, all seemed poor quality colour wise and most were blurry. Could this be a fault in the camera? My photos look nothing like my friends.

I have read all the instruction manuals.

You will have to post some...
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Learning to act my wage.

happysaz133 said:

I recently got my newest camera, a Nikon D40. I know 2 people who
have them, and I've always been amazed by their photos. However mine
came today, and out of 233 photos, all seemed poor quality colour
wise and most were blurry. Could this be a fault in the camera? My
photos look nothing like my friends.

I have read all the instruction manuals.

Click to expand...

Most likely user error. Blurry photos should have nothing to do with the camera body unless something is terribly wrong. You are probably not using a high enough shutter speed to counteract hand shake and/or motion. As far as colors go, do your friends post-process? If so, that almost certainly has something to do with it. Otherwise, you can tweak the in-camera settings (saturation, etc.), but your control there is limited.

Remember that the camera only does so much in terms of making a photograph. The lens does more, and the operator does more still, both before, during, and after the act of pressing the shutter release.

—Brendan

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcmlxxxvi/ :: 1cor13.1

Assuming that the camera you use is not defective blurry photos may result from hand shake or the movement of the subject. You can put the camera S mode and select 1/200 sec and ISO to 200 to 400 as a start. If you are picturing a running subject or speedy cars you should increase camera speed to 1/500 or more. There may be presets in your camera for these modes; you can try these presets.

For unsatisfactory color you may put your custom settings to Vivid. I pay attention not to take blurry or unfocused pictures and try to correct color, contrast and to some degree sharpness when I process NEF files in the computer.

I agree, a simple check is the swap cameras with your friend and then view the results.

Morris
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http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/~morris/POD

I agree with the other posters here that, without seeing images or knowing more details, it sounds like user error. When I used to sell cameras, I used to have customers come in all the time with concerns that sound much like yours, and in all but one case where the camera was actually defective, the image problems resulted from a user who relied on the camera to know more about photography then he/she wanted to learn.

I don't want to sound harsh, believe me, but this sounds to me much like, "I have friends who can paint beautiful paintings. I bought the same type of paint and brushes and the same brand of canvas, but my paintings don't look as good. Is there something wrong with the brush?"

Instruction manuals tell what your camera's different knobs, buttons and switches do, but they don't give any foundation in photography. However, there are numerous books at your local bookstore or library that should go way beyond the instruction manual and help give a good foundation in photography. (Usually when I suggested this at the camera store my customers told me they didn't want to get THAT into photography. They REALLY wanted the camera to do the work.)

Anyway, the best camera in the world can only do so much, the rest will be up to you. You'll have to decide if better photos are worth the investment in time and knowledge.

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A camera is just a tool - no matter how much one loves it.

First post. First DSLR. what a suprise.

Friend do a lot of reading starting with the manual . Learn about Aperature and shutter speed. Download Googles Picasa to start learning about processing your photos. Here is a start.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d40/users-guide/index.htm
http://www.nikondigitutor.com/eng/d40/index.shtml

Check my Photo Blog
http://parisea.blogspot.com/

Before I got my D40 I was only using a poor p&s but the photos always came out "ok"

For the first 500 shots or so of my D40, the majority were instantly deleted as they were that poor. After doing some reading, both on here and a "photography for dummies" guide, I can now say the majority are crisp and good.

Once I nail a basic understanding of composing a shot I shall start posting some pics

I agree with the others that is is probably user error, combined with your unfamiliarity with SLRs. I was very disappointed with my D50 when I first got it, mainly due to the 'dull colors' OOC compared to my P&S. Learn your camera and I think you'll be happily impressed with your improved photography.

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http://www.jcgphotography.com