Need help with camera settings!

[OhioCooner]

Originally Posted by firediver

My biggest pet peeve is when the photographer stands way too far away from the subject.

That bugs me also. I like to fill the frame but also leave a border so to speak, that way you're not cutting off the top of their head, etc.
If you want to make a Buck look even bigger look up on it from a downward angle. And if possible have a light background, like a clear blue sky.

[dhertz]

So far you've got some pretty good advice, I'll add my .02

As already mentioned a couple things for the shadows are
1 - Have subject facing the sun, usually takes care of the shadows but sometimes gets your subject squinting and not looking relaxed.
2 - Use your flash as a fill flash to take care of shadows. While this does a good job it is not a cure-all, depending on your natural lighting conditions you should shoot some with and some without the flash and sort out the ones you prefer later.
3 - Choose a shaded spot for taking pics.
4 - All the above.

Other critiques would be...
1 - To be closer to your subject, you have too much foreground in the pic.
2 - Framing, I like firedivers frame example for framing other than I would try to have a little more space above the gun barrell on top. For photos I usually give myself a little extra room for me to crop it down later in the computer as opposed to trying to hit the frameing perfect and find out later I accidently cut something out that I need.
3 - In reference to framing, always to horizontal & vertical formats of the same shot - that way if your submitting it for a publication or website the editor can choose what fits his format the best.

[Monie]

Those are good tips, Gary.

[bullmoose38]

You guys are great! Thanks for all the tips!

[Pixeldoctor]

The name of the game is to fill the frame... Blur the background using a larger aperture setting, f2.8, 1.4, or 4.1 depending on the size of your lens, use a lower ISO like 100, again fill the frame with your subject, (either zoom in or move up) the rest is just a distraction, like others have said, sunlight over the subjects shoulder so it is not in his eyes, shoot eary in the morning or later in the evening or in the cover of shade so as to avoid harsh shadows and blownout highlights, use a fill flash, preferabally an add on flash with a diffuser, you can also use a filter like a polarizing filter for dark blue skies, or a warming filter to add a bit of warmth to the picture. Also never place your subject in the middle of your compisition, use the rule of thirds and always make sure your subject is looking into the frame not out of it. The best overall advice I had ever received was Compact Flash Cards are cheap and hold alot of pictures so shoot multiple pictures using different settings and filters put them on the computer and decide what one you like bes by studying the meta-data of the photograph. Shoot, shoot, shoot some more and shoot even more yet and pull them into photoshop and work with them from there...

[oneshot]

Everyone has given great tips so you'll be in good shape. one tip that i might add is the background , try to have a background which lets you see a long way . for example across a green field with a valley or ridge several hundred yards in the distance.