Originally Posted by Kenny

You should buy your bro a tripod..

Some of those pics look like Michael J. Fox snapped them.

Also the picture that you really liked kinda sucks. Why did he focus on the keyring?

The day pics don't look bad, but the cropping looks weird though.

Originally Posted by Cmike2780

Nice work. The first one's are a bit out of focus/blurry. Night shots are always a bit tricky, but once you know the basics, it's a lot of fun. Here's what you need:

-Get Tripod
-Set your ISO to the lowest it will go. I think it's ISO 100 for the Nikon
-Get a remote trigger or use the timer
-Set the camera to 'M' Manual mode
-Depending on how much you want in focus and the lens, set your aperture (f-stop). This will control your depth of field along with the focal length and distance. A higher number, like f11 or f22, will have more of the background in focus.
-Next, adjust the shutter speed to control the overall scene. Longer exposures will allow more light in.
-Last but not least...and probably most important is lighting the scene. Be mindful of how light hits whatever you're shooting. That 3rd shot looks remarkably better than the first two for example.
-Keep on experimenting. You're off to a great start.

In that last pic, it would be more interesting if the background was slightly blurred for example. Try this in that same setup...set the camera to aperture priority. Since the kit lens is probably an 18-55mm, zoom it all the way to 55mm. Set the aperture to the lowest f-stop, probably f/5 @ 55mm. Now just move forward or away from the car to compose the shot, bringing the car into focus.

As far as lenses, the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 or 50mm f/1.8 are relatively inexpensive, but really, really great lenses. It's a 'prime' or fixed as oppose to a zoom. It's great because of the large aperture which gives you the bokeh or blurred background look easier.

If you want to shoot up close, invest in a dedicated Macro/Micro lens. The least expensive Nikon Micro is the 40mm. The difference between a dedicated Micro and a regular lens is the ability to magnify and a really close focal lengths.

There are a few affordable programs out there. Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture are probably the easiest and most popular.