[jt1667]

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@hollywoodhr
dont get discouraged. my k-r was the first dslr after years of of nikon p&s cameras. when i first decided to buy pentax i got the same reaction from photo shooting friends "oh, a pentax (raised eyebrows)." as they are all nikon users. once i showed them the camera and its laundry list of features they quickly realized i got more camera for less money.

now being that this is my first dslr i am going through the same problems, lots of so-so pictures and a few great ones. however after almost 10 months of ownership, multiple manual readings, reading the forum, & taking a basic dslr class ive come to get better shots w/ much more ease. my class alone taught me how to use manual shooting only and to get away from "auto" shooting.

good luck & keep up the work

[hollywoodhr]

Thanks everyone! I think I will be printing all this out. Some of this valuable information is not to be found in the sources that I have

[geru2000]

I would actually agree with everything you said except for the above. I would actually recommend people stay away from spot metering until they learn a little more about exposure. Center weighed average metering would be the more general-purpose metering which should give excellent results in 95% of shooting situations. Spot gets people into trouble very, very quickly.

Thanks for catching that. Center Weighted is what I meant (not Spot Metering).

I didn't realize that I could edit my post after being up so long. I just went back and changed that portion.

Again thanks

[lister6520]

Thanks for catching that. Center Weighted is what I meant (not Spot Metering).

I didn't realize that I could edit my pot after being up so long. I just went back and changed that portion.

Again thanks

I think you need to edit your 'pot' again :-)

[hollywoodhr]

Thank you! I'm going to take some photos on Saturday with a friend and I will apply these new settings and see what the results are.

[timmijo]

You are doing well to inquire and learn. I recently acquired a Kr as well. Someone told me that in the beginning, the photos would be disappointing, but they would quickly improve with practice. Don't be discouraged. The Kr has an outstanding sensor and is in no way a mediocre camera. Kit lenses are for learning and are adequate to the task.
I found that I had a prime manual lens, a 50mm 1.7 Sears lens in my old SLR camera bag. I tried that lens on my Kr a few weeks ago and still can't catch my breath, the picture was THAT GOOD (of my son on the couch--It's like a portrait--and will post it ASAP), and handheld at that. Just saying this to prove that the Kr itself is a fantastic camera and that you will have fun as you learn and as you begin to grow into other lenses. But it's still a good idea to master your kit lens (as I am doing).

[hollywoodhr]

Thank you, timmijo!

So, I have been looking for tripods, and I'm interested in the brand Velbon. Is that a decent brand?
Actually well, I've been checking out these two: one and two. Which one would you say is the best, or is there some other brand, that you would recommend? Yeah, JinDesu did post a link to a tripod, but I definitely won't order online, I want a tripod that is available in Estonian stores.

It would be my first tripod, so I'm not looking for anything expensive.

[timmijo]

I would get the tripod that can extend the highest. One of these you posted equals about 60 inches (US) in height, and the other equals about 63 inches. Build quality is important as well, and a leveling bubble is a plus. I have two tripods. One is a cheap one from Walmart (Targus brand), lightweight aluminum and less bulky than my Bower brand tripod (that came with my KR). The Targus is adequate and takes up less room. The Bower is heavier and bulkier. I use them both.

The Targus (aluminum) is great as a monopod; simply fold the three legs inward and carry it around with your camera on top. Works for me.

If you can go to the store location to fiddle with tripods, that would be ideal so that you could extend the legs and check the upper components to see if they are built well and if your camera would sit securely on the base plate. You don't need anything overpriced, just something that will support the weight of your camera with smooth hinges and levers.

[wildweasel]

This might help a little Best tripods and camera supports: 15 tested | News | TechRadar. In general, the heavier the better as the weight helps prevent vibration and movement from the wind.

[jatrax]

It would be my first tripod, so I'm not looking for anything expensive.

Don't go too cheap on a tripod. There is a lot of total junk out there. You don't need the most expensive but get one good enough to last and work for you for years. Otherwise you are just wasting money. A cheap tripod is not worth the time to set up, a good tripod is a pleasure to use. If you decide you don't like it later a cheap tripod is worthless on the re-sale market, a good tripod holds its value quite well.

Please do not be tempted to put $1,000 worth of camera gear on a $20 tripod.

[hollywoodhr]

I was thinking about getting a bit heavier and a higher tripod. My budget is about €60, but I found THIS tripod, which is like €85, so I guess the €25 couldn't hurt.

It says here that no bubble level. What is that?

Do you think this one would be a good purchase?

Please do not be tempted to put $1,000 worth of camera gear on a $20 tripod.

I don't wanna do that.

Also, a little update on the image quality. I took some photos again, and I think the quality has improved.












actually this one was really hard to capture, my camera kept focusing on smth which I don't know exactly what, so it was ULTRA blurry. I used here a scene, this sunset scene in my camera.

[lister6520]

...........

actually this one was really hard to capture, my camera kept focusing on smth which I don't know exactly what, so it was ULTRA blurry. I used here a scene, this sunset scene in my camera.

What is causing the problem is probably the glare from the sun confusing the autofocus. What I do for such shots is
- point the camera at something else about the same distance, perhaps another bunch of trees further to the right so the sun is well out of the view,
- half press the trigger to focus on those trees
- switch to manual focus
- re compose the picture and shoot

If there is nothing else at the right distance to focus on you could try to shield the sun with your hand so the camera doesn't 'see' it, focus, remove your hand from in front of the sun, switch to manual focus and shoot.

Instead of switching to manual focus you could also just keep the shutter button half pressed until you recompose but then you need to be careful that the camera is not set to lock also the exposure.

All that said, however the best way to take such shots is to do it all manually. Unless you are capturing action shots, manual often tends to be easier because otherwise you might end up spending more effort trying to get the automatic settings to work as you want instead of just setting them manually yourself.

For this photo I had the exact same problem you experienced, the camera would not focus at all, so I instead focused on some buildings further to the left that were at about the same distance and with the sun out of the picture. When I got the focus I just set it to manual focus and took several shots, even varying the shutter speed to get different exposures so I could then chose the one with the best exposure.

[wildweasel]

That looks like a pretty good tripod. A bubble level helps you make sure the tripod is properly levelled before shooting, but you can get a hotshoe mount one if you need it for next to nothing. 1PC Camera Hotshoe Flash Hot Shoe Bubble Spirit Level Cover Cap For Canon Nikon | eBay.

By the way, I hope you don't mind my saying, your pictures are getting a lot better but have you tried using post-production yet? I use Faststone a lot (FastStone Image Viewer - Powerful and Intuitive Photo Viewer, Editor and Batch Converter) which is a free and fairly powerful program. It's also very easy to learn and quick to use - it took me well under a minute to re-do your first shot.

[newmikey]

Also, a little update on the image quality. I took some photos again, and I think the quality has improved.

Helena, it has certainly improved but you are still not getting the results you should be getting out of the camera. As the images lack EXIF info, it is really hard to guess what you did. Can you either post the images with EXIF intact or post the EXIF info separately? You can extract it very easily with a freeware viewer like Irfanview which allows you to copy it to your clipboard (Windows) and paste it as text into a forum post.

Tripods with bubbles, without bubbles, all good and well but how about focusing on the basics first? The shots you posted seem not to rely heavily on a tripod anyway.

Your K-r is capable of much, much more and I'm still guessing there is one simple camera setting we can help you with that will literally make your images come alive instantly.

[hollywoodhr]

This is the information of the first photo (photo). I used a picture that I had already converted to jpeg, so basically it is not from an original, cuz I don't have the originals.


Filename - IMGP4428.jpg
ImageWidth - 4352
ImageLength - 2868
BitsPerSample -
Compression - -1 (Unknown)
PhotometricInterpretation - -32733
Make - PENTAX
Model - PENTAX K-r
StripOffset - 111232
SamplesPerPixel - 1
RowsPerStrip - 2868
StripByteCount - 12306601
XResolution - 300
YResolution - 300
PlanarConfiguration - 1
ResolutionUnit - Inch
Software - K-r Ver 1.12
DateTime - 2012:11:10 18:16:29
Artist - Picasa
ExifOffset - 350
ExposureTime - 1/250 seconds
FNumber - 6.30
ExposureProgram - Normal program
ISOSpeedRatings - 200
ExifVersion - 0220
DateTimeOriginal - 2012:11:10 14:07:31
DateTimeDigitized - 2012:11:10 14:07:31
ExposureBiasValue - 1.70
MeteringMode - Center weighted average
Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength - 18.00 mm
ExifImageWidth - 4309
ExifImageHeight - 2868
InteroperabilityOffset - 6774
SensingMethod - One-chip color area sensor
CustomRendered - Normal process
ExposureMode - Manual
White Balance - Manual
FocalLengthIn35mmFilm - 27 mm
SceneCaptureType - Standard
Contrast - Hard
Saturation - Normal
Sharpness - Hard
SubjectDistanceRange - Close view

Maker Note (Vendor): -
Mode - Auto
Quality - RAW
ISO - 200
White Balance - Manual
Lens Type -

Thumbnail: -
ImageWidth - 160
ImageLength - 120
Compression - 6 (JPG)
XResolution - 300
YResolution - 300
ResolutionUnit - Inch
JpegIFOffset - 6934
JpegIFByteCount - 4115


The second one: (photo)

Filename - IMGP4407.jpg
ImageWidth - 4352
ImageLength - 2868
BitsPerSample -
Compression - -1 (Unknown)
PhotometricInterpretation - -32733
Make - PENTAX
Model - PENTAX K-r
StripOffset - 109920
SamplesPerPixel - 1
RowsPerStrip - 2868
StripByteCount - 9017103
XResolution - 300
YResolution - 300
PlanarConfiguration - 1
ResolutionUnit - Inch
Software - K-r Ver 1.12
DateTime - 2012:11:10 18:15:15
Artist - Picasa
ExifOffset - 350
ExposureTime - 1/400 seconds
FNumber - 9.00
ExposureProgram - Normal program
ISOSpeedRatings - 200
ExifVersion - 0220
DateTimeOriginal - 2012:11:10 13:46:29
DateTimeDigitized - 2012:11:10 13:46:29
ExposureBiasValue - 0.00
MeteringMode - Center weighted average
Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength - 50.00 mm
ExifImageWidth - 4309
ExifImageHeight - 2868
InteroperabilityOffset - 6774
SensingMethod - One-chip color area sensor
CustomRendered - Normal process
ExposureMode - Auto
White Balance - Manual
FocalLengthIn35mmFilm - 75 mm
SceneCaptureType - Standard
Contrast - Hard
Saturation - Normal
Sharpness - Hard
SubjectDistanceRange - Distant view

Maker Note (Vendor): -
Mode - Auto
Quality - RAW
ISO - 200
White Balance - Manual
Lens Type -

Thumbnail: -
ImageWidth - 160
ImageLength - 120
Compression - 6 (JPG)
XResolution - 300
YResolution - 300
ResolutionUnit - Inch
JpegIFOffset - 6934
JpegIFByteCount - 3122


The third one: (photo)

Filename - IMGP4384.jpg
ImageWidth - 4352
ImageLength - 2868
BitsPerSample -
Compression - -1 (Unknown)
PhotometricInterpretation - -32733
Make - PENTAX
Model - PENTAX K-r
StripOffset - 109792
SamplesPerPixel - 1
RowsPerStrip - 2868
StripByteCount - 7466675
XResolution - 300
YResolution - 300
PlanarConfiguration - 1
ResolutionUnit - Inch
Software - K-r Ver 1.12
DateTime - 2012:11:10 18:10:48
Artist - Picasa
ExifOffset - 350
ExposureTime - 1/400 seconds
FNumber - 20.00
ExposureProgram - Creative program
ISOSpeedRatings - 200
ExifVersion - 0220
DateTimeOriginal - 2012:11:09 16:59:06
DateTimeDigitized - 2012:11:09 16:59:06
ExposureBiasValue - 0.00
MeteringMode - Center weighted average
Flash - Flash not fired, compulsory flash mode
FocalLength - 47.50 mm
ExifImageWidth - 4309
ExifImageHeight - 2868
InteroperabilityOffset - 6774
SensingMethod - One-chip color area sensor
CustomRendered - Normal process
ExposureMode - Auto
White Balance - Auto
FocalLengthIn35mmFilm - 72 mm
SceneCaptureType - Landscape
Contrast - Hard
Saturation - Normal
Sharpness - Hard
SubjectDistanceRange - Distant view

Maker Note (Vendor): -
Mode - Auto
Quality - RAW
ISO - 200
White Balance - Auto
Lens Type -

Thumbnail: -
ImageWidth - 160
ImageLength - 120
Compression - 6 (JPG)
XResolution - 300
YResolution - 300
ResolutionUnit - Inch
JpegIFOffset - 6934
JpegIFByteCount - 1588


I think I used P mode.
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Thanks, lister6520!


wildweasel, you mean like photoshop ? I will only edit my photos, when I find them good enough, but lately not that often. I actually have a gallery to share HERE. Umm, from the first page, photos until "bright" are taken with a dslr and all that comes after "bright" are taken with a compact camera. (the hibines are taken by my father, I only edited). "bright" is taken with a friend's Nikon.