Suggestions greatly appreciated

5 years 3 months ago #623827 by amcdonald
Hello! I recently upgraded from a Nikon Coolpix L820 to a Nikon D3500 with an 18-55 mm VR lens and a 70-30 mm lens. I know 100% I have a ton to learn. I’m just a little worried at this moment. That’s where I was hoping someone here could help me. I would like to post some pictures to show you what my interests are. These are all pics I took with my bridge camera. I will post one pic from my D3500 to show you my concern (little guy in grey superhero shirt). In this picture, I was shooting in auto for the sake of an example. I was 8 feet away, sitting down (stable). The picture is not crisp enough for my liking. Up close pictures are fine. It’s just the distant or zoomed parts that I’m worried about. So far, I did better with my older, cheaper camera. PS I know these aren’t magazine ready pics, but they are good enough for me.

My question is: Is this something that will get better with time and practice OR am I going to have to buy other lenses to achieve what I want?

My interests are family pictures, landscapes and my kids playing sports. It’s hard to imagine lugging a lot of lenses around for all this (something I didn’t think about before my purchase). 

I’m also looking into the Coolpix B700 or Coolpix P900, if anyone has experience with those, I’d greatly appreciate it. 

Thank you you so much for your opinions and time. :)
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3500
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec
Captured: Wed, 2 Jan 2019 7:27am


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5 years 3 months ago #623909 by garyrhook
We don't know anything about the settings for any of those photos, so it's difficult to suggest why the first one didn't work, or why the others did.


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5 years 3 months ago #623916 by Nikon Shooter
From what I see, I would conclude that the AF didn't
get the chance to perform its task because the scene
— lit by an incandescent lightbulb — was too dark. This
explains the soft focus and the WB.

I also see that you were not so stable because the blur
indicates movement from either of you or both. This is
tells me that your exposure settings were inappropriate
and that a flash should have been used.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
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