Fun Lenses in the Desert Last Week

*Ron Boggs* · 05-18-2009, 10:10 PM

Let the lenses do the talking from a recent trip. These are all lenses that get a bit of internet chat, so I posted some samples.

Most of the stuff shot last week on a business trip was on 67 film and Hassy pano film so won't have that for a couple weeks. These are from K10D with various lenses FA* and DA 12-24. Some from as far South as Arizona. Bird shots from a refuge in Idaho which I visited on each end of the trip--bringing some truth to the phrase, "didn't know if I was coming or going."

Saguaro Cactus at dusk as shot (no pp) with FA*28-70/2.8. Have sharper versions where I manually focused better, but prefer the lighting and composition on this one. No post processing of any kind--just resized for forum.

Jimson Weed skeletal branching shot with DA12-24/4 in horrible midday light. No sharpening, cropping or other post processing other than resizing for this forum.

White Faced Ibis shot with either FA*600/4 or FA*250-600/5.6. Haven't culled or imported into Lightroom yet, thus can't tell which lens yet as I was shooting them interchangeably. Again, no post processing or sharpening--just "as shot" with a slight crop.

Striated Sandstone shot in harsh light with 12-24. Slightly decreased contrast in pp.

These optics sure are fun!

knumbnutz · 05-19-2009, 07:02 AM

Great shots Ron,
Love the first and last especially.
Cheers Neil

timbo13 · 05-19-2009, 11:38 AM

really like the first one, the colors are fantastic!

*Ron Boggs* · 05-21-2009, 08:41 AM

Shot the cactus silhouettes at a variety of different white balances to get the colors closer to the actual sky. This is a weak spot in many digi cameras. Hope the new K7 sunset setting (CTE?) will help with this...though knowing my tendencies, I'm likely to continue to shoot sunsets at various white balance settings.

The image posted was shot at the setting for fluorescent lights type D (daylight). The 5000K setting was also really good but lacked the slight violet hue just above the orange strip of sunset. Cloudy and daylight settings had a slight greenish hue which I didn't like. Custom manual setting with a bit of tinkering was able to render a very blue version...

I recommend playing with white balance when shooting colorful skies...

*k100d* · 05-21-2009, 09:26 AM

ron, really want to see your XPAN work

*Ron Boggs* · 05-21-2009, 10:27 AM

Sent out 8 rolls of XPanII shots day before yesterday. Usually takes about 12 days between ship date and my light table. I'm pretty stoked myself! Note that I've been crying to my wife that I didn't use the 90/45mm nearly enough and took almost all the images with the 45/22. Oh well, that gives me an excuse to return again! I did use the 45mm extensively with the Pentax 67II which gives an angle of view almost identical to 22mm version on XPan, so I will have stuff to compare.

Only shot a couple rolls of Velvia 50 due to shooting in 30 mph winds. To minimize vibration issues I mostly shot Provia 100F and Kodak E100VS while "laying" on the camera/tripod to hold it steady. But with Pentax 67II I shot mostly Velvia 50 and prayed...

That XPan is under your skin a bit isn't it?

timbo13 · 05-21-2009, 12:20 PM

Ron, thanks for the insight on changing the color balance when shooting sunsets (and sunrises, I assume), I will be sure to try this at my next opportunity.

*Ron Boggs* · 05-21-2009, 03:44 PM

The Pentax interface for white balance on the K10D and K20D is really nice to use for this type of shooting. Basically, take a photo then press the function button for the 4way controller...click the white balance side (left I believe) and then as you scroll through each of the white balance settings it is applied to the previous image as a preview. So you see on the LCD just what you want to choose for subsequent photos. It's very nice to have that leisure. (No, my K100D doesn't seem to have this feature so I presume the Km and K200D don't as well?)

Apparently the new K7 lets you apply white balance choices AFTER taking the image, maybe even in JPEG? So the white balance previews that I use so frequently to set up forthcoming shots can actually be applied and saved on any image. What a nice feature! Shoot the image and white balance it in-camera. This is for sure a version of in-camera RAW converter, but may also apply to JPEGs as the current preview does.