I believe that I should win the DA 50mm prime because I love taking photos of the little details here and there on cars that other people might miss, and I shoot a lot handheld in low-light conditions, so the f/1.8 would be very useful for my purposes. I also love bokeh, and who doesn't love a good bokehlicious picture? While I have a bit of experience shooting with different cameras, the K-5 II is not only my first Pentax camera, but before I got the K-5 II and the 18-135mm WR, I have never had the opportunity to shoot with anything that wasn't a decidedly sub-par kit lens (sorry Sony and Canon, your kit lenses honestly aren't that good at all), and even now I've never even been able to try a prime lens. Some would consider that a photographer crime, so take that as you will.

(In the interests of full disclosure, the image below HAS been post-processed, but only with the default DxO Optics Pro 9 filters, and the correction module for the K-5 II and DA 18-135mm lens)

[BodenM]

Since we can bump our threads once every 40 hours now, bump :P

[BodenM]

Bumping again for visibility.

[BodenM]

Even if you don't like the picture, some feedback would be greatly appreciated

[gmans]

Hey Boden, I like your idea, just a little to dark for my taste. My eyes have never been that great and your photo is to hard to make out detail for me. Just my 2 cents or 20 allowing for inflation.

PS: I don't know if you could PP it, if thats allowed, birng out some shadow detail, others here may have a better opinion then me and give some input.

[BodenM]

Hey Boden, I like your idea, just a little to dark for my taste. My eyes have never been that great and your photo is to hard to make out detail for me. Just my 2 cents or 20 allowing for inflation.

PS: I don't know if you could PP it, if thats allowed, birng out some shadow detail, others here may have a better opinion then me and give some input.

Thanks for the advice/feedback
The image has been post-processed already, but only to correct for lens distortions, vignetting and basic flaws. I haven't really had a chance to play around with levels yet during PP but I certainly will be experimenting more and more each time.

[gmans]

Thanks for the advice/feedback
The image has been post-processed already, but only to correct for lens distortions, vignetting and basic flaws. I haven't really had a chance to play around with levels yet during PP but I certainly will be experimenting more and more each time.

Hope you did not mind my critique, the shot was a good idea the in bonnet and cars background, maybe you might be able to squeeze a bit more detail out of it if you give it a go. Cheers any how and keep shooting.

[BodenM]

Hope you did not mind my critique, the shot was a good idea the in bonnet and cars background, maybe you might be able to squeeze a bit more detail out of it if you give it a go. Cheers any how and keep shooting.

Oh I don't mind at all, in fact I find it really helpful

[Pknot]

Boden,

I am glad you appreciate using a "real" camera. But I do have to say you need to work on lighting. There is far too much reflected light and shadow for this to be a good example. The foreground cable and the background are distracting, even if the engine detail was visible. Sorry to criticize, but you asked! Keep working on composition and study how light can work in your favor if you account for it.