Great blue sky, how do you mask such an intricate treeline?

I love shooting outdoors but in the fall when tree color is best but sometimes I have a really hard time with balance. Here is wide shot of the falls and a selfie taken at Cumberland falls in SE Kentucky, the scene was beautiful but my shots don't do them justice. It was a really grey overcast day and post didn't help much. I tried other lenses and didn't do any better. My 50 & 35 primes are my favorites, I'm shooting this on a Nikon 3200. It isn't the cheap camera thats the problem, I have taken many a lovely shot with it but these conditions are really hard for me.

wide angle at falls at f5.6

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fill flash used, I was really dark without it

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I have a "Cheap" Nikon which is a better camera than anyone had ten years ago. The equipment today is wonderful, even the "cheap" equipment. I don't know your camera but like others have said it is your eye that makes the picture.
Run a couple tests on your camera lens combination to make sure your are focusing on where you want to focus. Often cameras come from the factory with slightly back or front focus and most are adjustable. To get those "tack" sharp images you need to either manually focus or make sure your auto is spot on.

As others have said, shoot raw and learn to get the most from post processing. As someone once told me, digital film is cheap, take lots of pictures, maybe one of them will be great.

I started with a kit lens and then purchased several zoom lenses before I purchased my first prime. My favorite lens in now my 50mm 1.4, I now mostly zoom with my feet.

Many will tell you that 6 mega pixels are all you need, I used to believe that and have take great pictures at 4 megs but now with 24 I have gotten many great pictures by cropping the original.

A good quality picture is wonderful but, the most important thing to do is get the important picture. If the picture is grainy, low contrast or poor color rendition but the subject is awesome you still have an awesome picture.

You are still shooting pretty fast at 320.

You could easily slow down to about 125 and stop down as shown above, f8 would be good and capture the whole scene in focus.

You are shooting with one of the best lenses on the market but you are wasting it's ability to capture the full color of the scene and detail by shooting fast and forcing the ISO up. As was also said above you could be shooting at ISO 100 easily in that much light, at f8 you may have to go to 200 but I would slow it down even further if warranted and keep the ISO 100 if at all possible. You can definitely do better that what you have done so far. The difference between 400 and 100 won't be nearly as dramatic as between 6400 and 400 but there will be an improvement.

I am impressed with the color depth you got at ISO 400, just think what you will get at 100.

I have a Cropped sensor and have both the 35mm 1.8 and the 50mm 1.4 lenses. I haven't decided yet which is my favorite. I disagree with those that say you don't need both. I have several other lenses but these two spend 99% of my shooting time on my camera. If I was going to get another lens I would like to have perhaps an almost fisheye lens, maybe 10 up to about 14 mm. They aren't quite so extreme on a cropped sensor camera as a full frame.

I think the Nikor 50mm 1.4 G takes the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen a lens take, especially in very low light. The bokeh on the 50 is absolutly luscious, smooth as can be. The 35mm 1.8 G DX has a very fast focus time and is spot on all the time, very sharp pictures and extremely good contrast and color. The 1.8 is sharp at full aperture with little or no vignetting. While the DOF on both lenses wide open is very short the 1.4 full open is only about an inch or so, which can make for splendid effects.

The lenses are cheap. New the 1.4 AF-S Nikor goes for about $400 American, while the 1.8 AF-S DX goes for about $200. Selling them used won't be worth the effort, Keep both, you will be glad you did.

I would really hate to give either of them up.

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Perhaps a Polarizing filter isn't exactly what you think it is. It is indeed a filter. We usually think of a filter as a mesh that stops small particles from going through it and in some ways a polarizing filter is that. The filter itself has lines that travel one direction only. The filter has thousands of lines, equally spaced and all exactly parallel to each other.

Light travels as a wave, different colors have different size waves but most light is not polarized, that is the waves beat in all directions. The Polarizing filter simply lets only the light whose waves beat in the same direction as the spaces between the lines in the filter go through it. By doing this all the light that goes through it has similar reflective properties and the differences between colors is much easier to see since you don't have light coming from odd angles taking away from the color. You won't notice nearly as many reflections since all the light waves are getting to the camera sensor beating in the same direction.

If the lines in your monitor are in a different direction than your filter then you won't see much light getting through the filter, as soon as you line up the lines or miniature "slats" in the filter and monitor the light goes through just fine.

Polarized sun glasses work in the same way. When you look at sun beating down on water with out your polarized sunglasses it can be difficult to see through the surface because while the surface reflects the light in all directions the reflection has a tendency to be polarized. With the lenses you only see the light from all directions that beats in the same directions as your lenses, but since much of what you see has been polarized in the reflection when you use a filter you take away much of the reflected light, as long as your filter is at a different angle than the reflection. The effect is that you see through the water, much of the reflected light is simply not seen because it is not parallel to the lines in your lens.

A polarizing filter does not have to be expensive, there are cheap sunglasses that have polarizing filters. On your camera however the fact that the lens is polarized is not all you need to worry about, you need to know what distortions your lens is adding to the glass you already have on your camera, thus a good polarizing filter tends to be expensive.

All I can say is look, open you eyes and you will see the truth. Here is one example, there many around if you look.

http://www.examiner.com/article/30-days-of-guns-saving-lives-a-collection-of-true-stories-of-self-defense

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One study I looked at in 1999 2-1/5 million violent crimes were thwarted because the victim had a gun.

Once a bad guy sees a gun, he, like you or me normally wants no part of it. He will go somewhere else and pick on someone who doesn't have a gun.

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The fact is concealed carry holders stop violent crimes nearly every day, often by shooting a gun wielding crook. No, you don't see it on the nightly news. For some reason it does not seem newsworthy to the people in our big name news departments, the reason, it does not fit the purpose of the stories. Gun stories are about trying to eliminate guns in society, when innocent people stop bad people that does not help the cause. There are many sites however that do publicize the truth, just do a google search. If you don't want to do that try reading a study on private guns and what they do, like this one "http://rense.com/general76/univ.htm".

Crime is dropping in this country, it is dropping because states are allowing their citizens the right already granted by the US Constitution to have and carry weapons.

Every year, as many as one-half million citizens defend themselves with a firearm away from home. Concealed carry laws are dropping crime rates across the country. A comprehensive national study determined in 1996 that violent crime fell after states made it legal to carry concealed firearms.

You can feel good about not having people around you carry guns or you can face the truth that guns save lives more than they take them.

Violence can be found in many areas where you would not expect it. Good neighborhoods have their doors broken down by home invaders as much as poor homes. Car theft and car-jacking happen to luxury cars more than junkers.

On the whole rural life is safer than urban life. The vast majority of times that guns are used to save a person from violence or theft the gun is not fired, only displayed. Most crooks want what you have but don't want to be shot and will try to find someone without a gun to pick on.

As a young man I never felt the need for a weapon. At 6'4" I just never felt that most people were a threat, old age changes that. A weapon simply evens the odd a little bit.

I do wish everybody carried. People who carry as a rule are more civil and want to avoid any situation where their gun could be exposed. People who carry understand how vulnerable they are to laws in society aimed squarely at them for carrying. I think of the poor mess that Zimmerman has made of his life. He is alive but his life is a mess.

Shooting someone is not something the vast majority of people would take lightly. Even in the case of Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, Mr. Zimmerman waited until his brains were getting knocked out of him as his head was getting bashed on the sidewalk.

While discharging a gun will cause a serious disruption to ones life, not having it could mean the end of your or your loved ones life. I personally feel the risk is worth it.

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What facts?

If I look at the newspapers everyday I can see where some thug committed a crime with a gun. I seldom if ever see a crime committed by a licensed gun carrier. I seldom see of an accident by a licensed gun carrier. Do cops carrying guns make society less safe? Just how is it that licensed gun carriers who all have to take safety courses before they get a license are a danger to society?

While the number of violent crimes per 100000 people have dropped in the last 50 years the number of crimes in total have not dropped. It is true however that you are less likely to have a violent crime committed against you than especially before 20 years ago. What is the reason for this incredible drop? I'll give you a hint, the biggest drops have been in states where laws have been changed to allow legal carry of weapons. The states that do not allow concealed carry have not had the same drop. Cities like NY, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Washing DC and others are still plagued by high crime. That high crime rate is the price they pay for keeping honest law abiders from carrying weapons.

If you don't like guns that's fine, but don't make up stuff about people who bend over backwards to be good members of society. I hope it won't be you who needs a licensed gun carrier some day but the person whose life is saved because of a licensed gun carrier will always be grateful even if you wouldn't.

The country HAS changed, but not because it's a more violent; it isn't. We just have MORE 24 hour news stations and people on the internet who make a HELLOVA lot of money SCARING us into thinking that things are worse. :x

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I truly wish you were right. The USA is more violent than when I was a kid for sure. I used to have to travel to Mexico. You cannot legally carry a weapon there, most people can not even own a weapon there. The gangsters however all have guns and use them frequently. Police men, Mayors reporters anybody who gets in the way of the drug runners will be murdered.

In Mexico there is business of kidnapping people for ransom. It happens hundreds of times every day. It only happens because people can't defend themselves.

The same would happen here but we have legal guns. The gangsters don't always win here. Sometimes they forfeit their lives in the pursuit of of their crimes.

In Florida a couple of decades ago there was an epidemic of car jackings. A bad guy would bump into a car and then when you get out to look at the damage they would beat you and steal your car. Florida made it legal to carry guns mostly because of this. Several car jackers got killed. Now there is not a problem in Florida with car jacking.

In Ukraine the people who have just taken their country back more than anything are asking for 2nd amendments rights like we have here in the US.

I respect people who don't believe in guns, mostly they are nice people who have a legitimate fear of a very dangerous instrument. I personally however, have a fear of criminals who own guns or other weapons who would harm me or mine. I do not want to be helpless like the Jews in Germany who before they were rounded up had their guns confiscated.

The US Founding Fathers understood the safety that a gun could provide and in their wisdom enshrined the right to have one in our Constitution.

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I never feel the anxiety you are talking about. I practice every other week so that I feel comfortable with my weapon. I have 18 grand kids. They don't know I carry. a few of the kids likely know but it is not discussed. All my weapons are kept locked away when not on my person. My handguns all have 8 pound or better trigger pulls so that a child can't do it, and you can throw the weapon down on a concrete floor and you can't make it discharge without pulling the trigger.

I think I have the exact opposite of anxiety, I feel calm knowing I may be able to protect my granddaughters from a mad molester, or my wife from someone who thinks he has the right to abuse her.

I do respect life. I do however discriminate. I believe the life of my granddaughter is worth more than the guy who would rape her or kill her. Society doesn't need rapists and when people do such anti-social activities and are willing to risk their lives or take other lives to fulfill their lust then If I give them what comes out of the duty end of my weapon, they deserve it and I will not pity them. I will feel I did society a favor.

If you protect my grandchild or wife from such I will honor you and always be grateful.

There are many millions of people in this country, USA, who carry weapons. They are not the people to fear unless you are a criminal.

And as for those cases in Florida: don't shoot kids for playing loud music, don't shoot anyone for texting in the movie theater, and don't shoot a black kid for wearing a hoodie! These folks make it very hard to say that American's right to bear arms is a good thing![/quote]

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I don't want to start a fight, but, the Zimmerman thing was not what the press said it was. The "poor kid" in the hoodie was a polar bear hunter and was trying to kill his polar bear when it fought back. Poor Trayvon Martin got just what he deserved.

Zimmerman did everything right. He waited until attacked to do anything. He screamed for help, finally when fearing he was about to lose his life he defended himself. I feel sorry for Zimmerman, not Martin.

Some years ago my son and I got into a friendly wrestling match. He won, handily. That was when I realized I was for sure a senior citizen.

As a young man I never thought of any person being a threat to my or my wife and kids safety. I'm a healthy 6'4" and have always been able to handle myself until now. After a couple of years debate with friends the same age I was astounded to know that many of my closest friends carried guns. These are normal, I thought, mild mannered people. I listened to what they had to say for a couple of years and then my wife and I took a course, got our concealed carry permits, got guns we felt comfortable with and we carry. We practice shooting every other week. We carry. That doesn't mean we carry when we go to some place we think might be dangerous. It means that when we get up and get dressed part of what we put on is our weapon.

We deliberated long and hard about this. We did a lot of research and chose a weapon we could not accidentally discharge. We felt that we are unable to determine in advance when we might need such protection so we carry all the time. Our friends convinced us that just like fire insurance on our home or car insurance we don't turn it off an on, the coverage is always on.

The press is very much against people who carry weapons so we don't talk about it with others that don't carry. Once you carry you start realizing that people you never guessed also carry.

My advice to all is, if you are sane you should enjoy your second amendment rights. I also recommend a weapon that is always safe, one that is a double action only, heavy trigger pull and is light enough that you won't notice you have it with you.

I never recommend a weapon that has a double stack magazine. If you can't do what you need to do in 7 or 8 shots you can't do it in 15.

Practice. Let me say that again, practice. My wife and I can pretty much hold a 2 inch pattern at 30' at rapid fire. I can't imagine that not being good enough.

Someone said he doesn't carry to protect his equipment just his personal safety. I don't disagree, but, I'm not handing over my equipment either and if someone uses force to take it away I may give them more than they bargained for.

Many would say, risking killing someone for a few thousand dollars is crazy. All life should be worth more than a few thousand dollars. I couldn't agree more and if a thief is willing to walk away empty handed then I would probably let him but I'm not giving up my gear because he wants it either. I'm not the type to shoot first and ask questions later, I will probably wait until I am cut or shot to shoot back but I will not give up. I'm tired of the thieving class thinking they can take whatever I own. I hope that the sudden popularity of people carrying weapons puts a dent in that class.

Protect society, carry.