Noob with K100D does Airshow ...

Noob with K100D does Airshow ... · 07:12 AM

Photography noob here. Have a K100D (6 weeks now) with the DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 "kit" and DA 50-200mm f/4.0-5.6 lenses, 52mm polarizing filter, etc... Used an airshow Saturday to play with various program, shutter priority and other settings (although I should have jacked up my ISO to beyond 200 at times) -- took about 600 JPEG and 400 RAW. Prior to this I largely took just JPEG (I have little free time to process much).

Anyhoo, here's my blog article to start ...
BS' Blog: What a cheap lens can give you (and not)

And the Flickr set ... which includes descriptions of what I used/learned/etc... (comments under each) from taking the shot ...
Rhode Island National Guard Airshow (2007Jun23) - a photoset on Flickr

Further comments in each photo on Flickr (as well as here) are always, greatly appreciated. I still have a long way to go before I can consider myself even an "amateur."

Entropy · 07-01-2007, 08:10 PM

Originally posted by CycloneBandDad

They always have a great showing, regardless of the scoreboard.

The Cornell Big Red Marching Band had a saying - "The Band Always Wins". It has consistently held true for years, regardless of the scoreboard.

I religiously attend my alma mater's Homecoming games (have not missed one since graduation, of course I only lived four hours away by car and now live 45 minutes away) but have ignored almost the entire game for every single one of them.

bjsmith - thanks for the photos, your airshow shots were one of the reasons I decided to make sure I got my DA 50-200 before this past weekend's airshow in Binghamton, NY. That lens was worth every penny! Sometime down the line I am thinking of adding the Tamron 70-300 or another lens that covers the range over 200, as there were a lot of situations in Binghamton where the aircraft were just too far away to fill more than a small portion of the frame. I'll definately be keeping the 50-200 no matter what though, as it is incredibly small and light for when you don't need anything longer than 200.

Peter Zack · 07-01-2007, 08:35 PM

Really great shots. Good detail and colour in all. Very cool how the longer zoom compresses some of the perspective and the planes almost look interlocked in flight. Very impressed with the shots and the sharpness of the lens.

You also mentioned that you couldn't get the sensor cleaned. Have you been doing any of that yourself? I clean the K10D and K110D all the time without issue and haven't had any trouble getting the dust off. Just get yourself a good "Rocket Blower" and a swab or lens brush for more stubborn dust. Also are using any PP? with these. The dust looks easy enough to clone out.

bjsmith · 07-01-2007, 10:39 PM

Originally posted by Peter Zack

You also mentioned that you couldn't get the sensor cleaned. Have you been doing any of that yourself? I clean the K10D and K110D all the time without issue and haven't had any trouble getting the dust off? Just get yourself a good "Rocket Blower" and a swab or lens brush for more stubborn dust. Also are using any PP? with these. The dust looks easy enough to clone out.

I ordered a Rocket Blower last week and will receive it this week.
Also, what do you mean by "PP"?

Peter Zack · 07-02-2007, 08:59 AM

Originally posted by bjsmith

I ordered a Rocket Blower last week and will receive it this week.
Also, what do you mean by "PP"?

"PP" Post Processing. Using something like Photoshop etc. I use Paint.net for this because I'm too cheap right now to spend the $$. Actually I've had a serious case of LBA that has limited the funds to give PS a shot yet. Paint.NET - Free Photo Editing Software for Windows is a very good program that has a ton of tools and has a clone stamp that will do a very good job removing the dust spots. There's a forum with tutorials and help and a decent help file. There are new updates all the time and it has a DNG RAW converter so you can shoot and edit any way you want.

I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty of adjusting this shot, It's only for demonstration purposes. I found 5 dust specs that you can see are gone in the second copy of the shot.

Last edited by Peter Zack; 12-16-2007 at 08:43 AM.

bjsmith · 07-02-2007, 09:21 AM

Originally posted by Peter Zack

"PP" Post Processing.

Oh, duh, as you can see, I'm such a noob that the lingo/acros don't come immediately.

Yeah, I finally took my first good number of RAW shots at the airshow -- about 400 RAW to 600 JPEG.
I wouldn't do PP on JPEG, only RAW, although I haven't had time to setup the software as of yet.

Originally posted by Peter Zack

Using something like Photoshop etc. I use Paint.net for this because I'm too cheap right now to spend the $$. Actually I've had a serious case of LBA that has limited the funds to give PS a shot yet.

I only have UFRaw (a GUI interface into DCRAW) loaded under Fedora Core 6 x86-64 (true 64-bit Linux) right now.
That will let me play with a few settings, convert to TIFF (16-bit for editing), JPEG (8-bit for general viewing), etc...

I haven't had any time to get CinePaint 0.2x (a 16-bit version of The GIMP) and LightZone 2.4 running under Linux x86-64.
I can't find a full x86-64 version of CinePaint for Fedora, had trouble building it, and LightZone 2.4 doesn't seem to want to run at all (JRE seems to work, but it silently dies).
Again, I haven't had any time to setup the software, only spent maybe 30 minutes on it.

The price you pay for running a true 64-bit OS (unlike Windows x64 which ships with almost entirely 32-bit libraries, long story), there can be porting issues and not all the 32-bit libraries are there.

Originally posted by Peter Zack

Paint.NET - Free Photo Editing Software for Windows is a very good program that has a ton of tools and has a clone stamp that will do a very good job removing the dust spots. There's a forum with tutorials and help and a decent help file. There are new updates all the time and it has a DNG RAW converter so you can shoot and edit any way you want.

I'm a Linux wennie, and the 64-bit version UFRAW seems to work fine -- sans the Fedora Extras version it doesn't seem to be built with the EXIF export feature (something I need to hit the maintainer on).

Originally posted by Peter Zack

I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty of adjusting this shot, It's only for demonstration purposes. I found 5 dust specs that you can see are gone in the second copy of the shot.

Thanx! BTW, what tool did you use inside of a program to do this?

Peter Zack · 07-02-2007, 10:34 AM

Originally posted by bjsmith

Thanx! BTW, what tool did you use inside of a program to do this?

Brian, Most of that computer stuff is over my head and as long as the computer lets me access the stuff, I'm happy.
The tool in Paint.net is called a "Clone Stamp" which I believe is the name used in all these programs. It is basically a circle that you can vary the size from 1 pixel to 100 and you are copying adjoining pixels that are the same colour to cover up the error. You can remove power lines and lots of things.

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07-01-2007, 08:35 PM	#17
Peter Zack Pentaxian Moderator Emeritus Join Date: May 2007 Location: Edmonton Alberta, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 10,643	Really great shots. Good detail and colour in all. Very cool how the longer zoom compresses some of the perspective and the planes almost look interlocked in flight. Very impressed with the shots and the sharpness of the lens. You also mentioned that you couldn't get the sensor cleaned. Have you been doing any of that yourself? I clean the K10D and K110D all the time without issue and haven't had any trouble getting the dust off. Just get yourself a good "Rocket Blower" and a swab or lens brush for more stubborn dust. Also are using any PP? with these. The dust looks easy enough to clone out. Last edited by Peter Zack; 07-02-2007 at 09:00 AM.

07-02-2007, 08:59 AM	#19
Peter Zack Pentaxian Moderator Emeritus Join Date: May 2007 Location: Edmonton Alberta, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 10,643	Post processing Originally posted by bjsmith I ordered a Rocket Blower last week and will receive it this week. Also, what do you mean by "PP"? "PP" Post Processing. Using something like Photoshop etc. I use Paint.net for this because I'm too cheap right now to spend the $$. Actually I've had a serious case of LBA that has limited the funds to give PS a shot yet. Paint.NET - Free Photo Editing Software for Windows is a very good program that has a ton of tools and has a clone stamp that will do a very good job removing the dust spots. There's a forum with tutorials and help and a decent help file. There are new updates all the time and it has a DNG RAW converter so you can shoot and edit any way you want. I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty of adjusting this shot, It's only for demonstration purposes. I found 5 dust specs that you can see are gone in the second copy of the shot. Last edited by Peter Zack; 12-16-2007 at 08:43 AM.

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07-01-2007, 08:10 PM	#16
Entropy Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Owego, NY Posts: 976	Originally posted by CycloneBandDad They always have a great showing, regardless of the scoreboard. The Cornell Big Red Marching Band had a saying - "The Band Always Wins". It has consistently held true for years, regardless of the scoreboard. I religiously attend my alma mater's Homecoming games (have not missed one since graduation, of course I only lived four hours away by car and now live 45 minutes away) but have ignored almost the entire game for every single one of them. bjsmith - thanks for the photos, your airshow shots were one of the reasons I decided to make sure I got my DA 50-200 before this past weekend's airshow in Binghamton, NY. That lens was worth every penny! Sometime down the line I am thinking of adding the Tamron 70-300 or another lens that covers the range over 200, as there were a lot of situations in Binghamton where the aircraft were just too far away to fill more than a small portion of the frame. I'll definately be keeping the 50-200 no matter what though, as it is incredibly small and light for when you don't need anything longer than 200.

07-01-2007, 10:39 PM	#18
bjsmith Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Baltimore, MD (USA) ; Orlando, FL (USA) Posts: 287 Original Poster	Originally posted by Peter Zack You also mentioned that you couldn't get the sensor cleaned. Have you been doing any of that yourself? I clean the K10D and K110D all the time without issue and haven't had any trouble getting the dust off? Just get yourself a good "Rocket Blower" and a swab or lens brush for more stubborn dust. Also are using any PP? with these. The dust looks easy enough to clone out. I ordered a Rocket Blower last week and will receive it this week. Also, what do you mean by "PP"?

07-02-2007, 09:21 AM	#20
bjsmith Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Baltimore, MD (USA) ; Orlando, FL (USA) Posts: 287 Original Poster	Originally posted by Peter Zack "PP" Post Processing. Oh, duh, as you can see, I'm such a noob that the lingo/acros don't come immediately. Yeah, I finally took my first good number of RAW shots at the airshow -- about 400 RAW to 600 JPEG. I wouldn't do PP on JPEG, only RAW, although I haven't had time to setup the software as of yet. Originally posted by Peter Zack Using something like Photoshop etc. I use Paint.net for this because I'm too cheap right now to spend the $$. Actually I've had a serious case of LBA that has limited the funds to give PS a shot yet. I only have UFRaw (a GUI interface into DCRAW) loaded under Fedora Core 6 x86-64 (true 64-bit Linux) right now. That will let me play with a few settings, convert to TIFF (16-bit for editing), JPEG (8-bit for general viewing), etc... I haven't had any time to get CinePaint 0.2x (a 16-bit version of The GIMP) and LightZone 2.4 running under Linux x86-64. I can't find a full x86-64 version of CinePaint for Fedora, had trouble building it, and LightZone 2.4 doesn't seem to want to run at all (JRE seems to work, but it silently dies). Again, I haven't had any time to setup the software, only spent maybe 30 minutes on it. The price you pay for running a true 64-bit OS (unlike Windows x64 which ships with almost entirely 32-bit libraries, long story), there can be porting issues and not all the 32-bit libraries are there. Originally posted by Peter Zack Paint.NET - Free Photo Editing Software for Windows is a very good program that has a ton of tools and has a clone stamp that will do a very good job removing the dust spots. There's a forum with tutorials and help and a decent help file. There are new updates all the time and it has a DNG RAW converter so you can shoot and edit any way you want. I'm a Linux wennie, and the 64-bit version UFRAW seems to work fine -- sans the Fedora Extras version it doesn't seem to be built with the EXIF export feature (something I need to hit the maintainer on). Originally posted by Peter Zack I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty of adjusting this shot, It's only for demonstration purposes. I found 5 dust specs that you can see are gone in the second copy of the shot. Thanx! BTW, what tool did you use inside of a program to do this?

07-02-2007, 10:34 AM	#21
Peter Zack Pentaxian Moderator Emeritus Join Date: May 2007 Location: Edmonton Alberta, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 10,643	Originally posted by bjsmith Thanx! BTW, what tool did you use inside of a program to do this? Brian, Most of that computer stuff is over my head and as long as the computer lets me access the stuff, I'm happy. The tool in Paint.net is called a "Clone Stamp" which I believe is the name used in all these programs. It is basically a circle that you can vary the size from 1 pixel to 100 and you are copying adjoining pixels that are the same colour to cover up the error. You can remove power lines and lots of things.