Seems that the WB is not accurate. Too warm.

Manual WB.

Sifu ac98 would be able to explain better.

These are the new generation of Malaysians...

Overall sharpness produced by a lens is dependent on its construction. The best is to refer to the MTF Chart of the lens. Controlling the aperture only controls the DOF and not the sharpness of a taken picture.

The best is to look for this information from the lens manufacturer's website.

Examples:

Olympus ZD 50mm f2 Macro
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/...0_20M/index.asp

Sigma 150mm f2.8 Macro
http://www.sigma-imaging-uk.com/lenses/macro/150mm.htm

Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 VR
http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/le...8g_if/index.htm

Check the Sigma website that I had given you. There is a link on the MTF Chart which shows you how to read it.

Here comes some of my constructive comments.

GF pic #1
Framing is OK. DOF also good enough but you seem to have focused on her cap and the coffee bean logo instead of her face. From what I see, you should be using the internal flash and has caused a harsh shadows especially due to her left hand. It also darkens the background too much and caused overall underexposure. An external bounced flash shot would be a better solution. Since you have buffer from the shutter speed, you can reduce the ISO to get a cleaner picture.

GF pic #2
The picture suffered from blown out background and blurriness due to slow shutter speed. I guess you have already notice that. Always remember the 1/focal length shutter speed rule if you don't have IS lens. Some people with steady hands can go up to 1 stop below that rule and still take sharp pictures.

Hamster pics
Nice of you to post your hamster pictures. I used to keep a few myself about 10 years ago. Sure brought back memories.
The best of the crop is the third one. It would be better to rotate the picture 90 degree clockwise. It would also help if you have taken the picture at an angle more to your right so that you can face the hamster front on. Nice control of ISO and shutter speed. I don't have comments on the rest as they are not that good IMO.

Hope I'm not too long winded with my 2 sen.

Do have steady hands when you recompose a picture. You will easily shift focus when you do it with shallow DOF. Try not to breath when recomposing and when pressing the shutter.

For bright background pictures, meter the background to properly expose it. Then use fill flash to brighten up the darken areas. I still haven't master this technique with my camera even when using an external flash.

Good to know that I have helped you out. Happy shooting!

Depending on the type of photography that you are interested, do consider between the external flash and a low-cost telephoto lens. IMO, the external flash is more important than a low-cost telephoto lens. You can look at compatible flashguns if the original ones are too expensive for you.

Some of my little comments.

Composition of the pretty girl's portrait could be better by not leaving out the hands and fingers unless you are going for half body portraiture.

Composition for girls with sunset picture is nice but the sun is overexposed. More silhouette with a proper exposed sun will be better. Meter at the sun and maybe decrease 0.5 - 1 stop exposure should be able to do it.

The portrait pose before the sunset pictures looks a bit weird as the girl seems to be correcting herself due to you taking a tilted picture of her.

Nice PP sunsets.

Faster shutter speeds would be nicer for action pictures to freeze the moment.

Finally, thanks for sharing and hope you had a great time there.

I'm glad that you have the same thoughts that I have on my comments.

Don't trust the previews on the LCD. Most of the time will not be the same as on a proper LCD monitor. The main thing about getting a good sunset shot is to get the sun into focus and exposed properly while the rest are in dark silhouettes.

The PP pictures are not "real" and I don't think you can get those kind of skies here. I prefer the camera able to capture what I see through the viewfinder instead of what I can get through PP.

Here's one crappy sunset shot I took quite some time back.



I'm usually a lone ranger when going for photo shoot. Anyway, having a photo buddy along would be just great.

PD? Do let me know if you ever drop by Seremban during weekdays as I'm working near there. Then you will have a photographer to accompany you.

For weekends, might need to plan ahead as I am away from Seremban (go see wife ). I am more flexible for weekdays.

Good seafood is always great to hear.

I don't need to go to Sabah for fresh and good seafood. I can get my fix at my wife's hometown in Sabak Bernam. It's cheap some more!

Just set a date and time and see how things go. A gathering of photographers from different camps should be a good one.