Originals and edited versions. All comments very welcome, particularly about the editing

Would definitely crop out the plane entirely in #1 and clone out whatever that pipe is in the upper right.

I was heading up north to play some golf yesterday morning and happened across this beautiful sunrise

Could you guys recommend me a camera? GF wants one for her birthday, mainly for nature and architectural shots. My budget is around $400 but would like to keep under $500. Anything specific I should be looking for? I'm a total noob when it comes to this stuff

Check this refurb camera/lens combo, this should get her started in the right direction.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-D3300-...gAAOSwiCRUhyBW

can anyone recommend a good underwater camera? I heard that even the higher priced cameras around $500 do not make that great pictures since it is often too dark underwater and once you work with flash it will just screw up your picture.
Thanks for your help!

Only as eccentricity I was editing some photos in Photomatix, and turned out it cannot work with raw, or something went wrong, but these errors are interesting:

Hey fellows, first time here. I just received a Sony A6000 as a gift and I have no idea how to use it. I wanna learn some photography basics so I can shoot some decent photos with it. Any ideas where to start? There is a lot of stuff about the Nikons but not much for the Sony. Thanks

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I am always starting reading manual
Learn how to set some automatic scenes (like portrait, nature, night) and let Sony do what Sony know. Next step is set machine to manual and do it on your own. You are basically setting only apperture, shutter speed and iso, aside of messing with lens. Rest of work you can do on pc with some photo editor.

To find out how the camera works Guide to the Sony A6000 is well worth the price.

To learn how to take good photographs, I like Cambridge in Colour for the basics. There are plenty of other web sites out there that you can look at. It really doesn't matter what camera you have to learn photography.

+1 on read the manual.

However when I first started out the manual seemed too dry and boring and had too much jargon I didn't understand, so I liked a guidebook similar to this
https://play.google.com/store/books/...4N5g&gclsrc=ds

Its good for having the basic functions explained in a simple way.

Then google composition rules for photography (rule of thirds!) and try to apply some of them to your photography. Although they're certainly more of guidelines than hard fast rules.

Then make sure you completely understand the exposure triangle. If you're unsure of what exactly the aperture, shutter speed, and iso are, and how they all affect each other, get googling!

I wouldn't go straight to manual, I play around with Aperture mode and Shutter speed mode first.

Also look up youtube videos for whatever your post processing program of choice is!

Nice, I like the colors and soft focus. What lens? I'm assuming there was some extra softening done in post?

Original: in the foreground, the Humboldt Range (Misty Mountains in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit). In the background is the twin-peaked Mt. Earnslaw, where a lot of Hobbit filming was done. The Humboldts have a very reddish color which I tried to bring out in editing.


Edited:

I sold my gf my D-80 (DX, crop sensor). She hinted that she wants a 50mm prime for Xmas. I ordered her this as I'm 95% sure her effective focal length is going to be 50mm. But it concerns me why Nikon would make a DX 35mm and not just call it a 50mm if it's meant for DX cameras.

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours...otography.html

A course by a National Geographic photographer. Really good quality, and a lot cheaper than when I bought it.

Because the focal length of the lens is the focal length of the lens. Just because you put it on a APS body doesn't change that. What does change is the field of view. And this only really matters if you are used to "full-frame" and need a point of comparison.

Ok but I am correct though that it will function like a 50mm for her right?

Depends why she wants it. Here's a nice little article on the subject.

Great article - that really clears things up. She wants to use it for portraits. So thinking this through - I'm pretty sure the composition is the most important to her, not actual focal length. Her last camera was a 35mm film camera, so this should emulate that as far as how far away from the subject to get the tripod, etc.

Hey,
I was in Malayisa for the last 2 weeks and took some pictures. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

What software do you guys use to edit your photos?

I'm just an avid enthusiast, fwiw.

Adobe Lightroom

edit: I'm just a hobbyist too.

Lightroom, v easy to use, v powerful, from what I heard it's best for non-professionals as pros have to use photoshop+others

Lightroom all the way for me