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I recently have been getting into photography again, and I recently purchased my first DSLR.  Nothing really special here since my car is stock, but I wanted to test out a new lens I recently purchased.  I decided to go around town this morning and take some photos today before watching the Superbowl.

I'm still learning my way around my camera and how to use Lightroom.

Enjoy!  And comments and criticism is more than welcome!

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8335/8445803661_0bb32523a0_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8190/8442873715_10196759b7_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8223/8446892880_3b879fd9fa_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8327/8442866315_d9bc7c8892_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8368/8443958476_6a00b518f6_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8371/8442869097_b14ba1d5dd_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8226/8442864945_53d5f2f528_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8097/8442864139_71bdc919d3_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8354/8442863001_455938195b_b.jpg)

Even stock, the car looks great.  Nice pictures!

Mark, I hate you.

Thanks Ike!
aww.. I love you too, Nelson! :tongue:
(no homo..)

Fixed.

Nice color on the car.  What lens were you testing out? 

Thanks!  

I was testing out a Tamron SP 70-300mm; i wanted to make sure I liked it before sending in the mail-in rebate.
Although, pics 4, 5, 6, and 7 above were taken with the 28-135mm kit lens..

I played with a few more sliders in Lightroom and came up with the following edits.. granted, I'm not using a calibrated monitor (but will eventually want to invest in a color calibrator)..

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8375/8463237791_e1cd892b47_b.jpg)

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8512/8463237077_c1dc2c95dd_b.jpg)

Great detail retention in the sky and the car.  Did you shoot these RAW?

Thanks Milan!  and yes, I did shoot these RAW.

Although, I do have to admit that I was a little careless and missed that my ISO was set to 1600 when I took these photos.  It'll be something to watch for next time I go out and shoot.  I think I got lucky with the results considering.

Props to you for shooting RAW, I'm too lazy lol.  Images look great considering the ISO.  The new cameras car really get away with it.  My almost 9-year-old 20D can only dream of that. 

You guys need to reach me about photos.

Just keep shooting.  Stop using the Auto setting and use aperture priority.  Experiment with your camera as much as you can.  I used to take 50-100 photos a day.  Since you don't have to pay to get them developed you loose nothing by shooting more.  Start playing around in photoshop.  It also takes time but the more you use it, the easier it will become.  YouTube has lots of tutorial videos for basic to advanced Photoshop techniques. 

I like shooting RAW since it forces me to learn what different settings and adjustments in post processing software do; granted, I could do the same with JPEG, but I have a feeling that if I shot in JPEG, I would say to myself, "good enough" and get lazy.

Mike, listen to Milan on this one.. It's all practice.  You could ask people all your questions, and read up on it as much as you want until your eyes bleed; but until you actually press that shutter button and take photos, a lot of that stuff doesn't necessarily make sense.  Play with camera settings, take photos with different ISO settings, f-stops, and shutter speeds; find out what the differences are between them and how certain settings change the photo.  The nice part about digital is having the EXIF info, so no need to write down settings in a notebook.

I'm still learning, and I have a lot to learn.  It's a great hobby for that, there's always something you could do differently.  Sure, once you have the fundamentals down, things become easier; but I don't think that you could ever stop learning with photography.  I'm still trying to get a better grasp on the fundamentals, but I'll get there; and that is half the fun for me.  It can definitely be frustrating, but if you don't let your frustration stop you, you can only improve.

That being said, as for your request, I'm open to questions. I'm not the best photographer out there, and as I stated, I still have a lot to learn; but I definitely don't mind helping.  It helps me learn too, because if I don't know the answer, I'll help search for it.

The initial question is what should the starting point be for an outdoor vs. Indoor photo. I have a cannon t1i for reference. I just don't know where to start.

Outdoors use your lowest ISO for bright days.  Shoot wide open (f/4-5.6 on your lens) for a narrow depth of field and an out-of-focus background.  Step down your aperture (f/8-f/11, f/16) to get a wide depth of field.  Keep in mind that shooting at small apertures (f/8-f/11) lets in significantly less light you you may have to bump up your ISO on cloudy days. 

Indoors you want to use a high ISO (800-3200) and a large aperture (f/4) to let in the most light.