[Jewelltrail]

Thanks Jeweltrail. It probably was a missed focus. About a year ago I started looking for a UWA lens to have for our summer vacation to the Grand Canyon and other spots around Az. Based on input from you and others on this forum (thanks - by the way), I chose the Sigma. Unfortunately, I only had time to get about 5 or 6 shots in with the lens before we left, so the trip was my first real "test" of it - and so I was learning as I went with it.

Since I wasn't looking for shots to put up on the wall on this trip, I'm happy with the way many of the shots turned out - considering I was "experimenting" as I went.

Thanks for the input and advice, and thanks again for the recommendation. I really like this lens.....

Tim

Tim, it is such a magnificient scene that it would great taken with a throw away camera. I love my 10-20--glad you do to. I wish I had scenes like the one above to shoot with it--I am absolutely drooling sitting here looking at this. Diffraction really crushes sharpness on UWA after f11 though.

You do know how to clear up a dust spot on a shot, after it is taken? If not, tell us here & someone will quickly offer up advice to you.

Please, please------can you post more astounding scenes like the one above for us???

[atupdate]

Tim,

Hope to don't mind but I took a couple of minutes to work on your image.

The two primary things I did was to up the contrast using Ben's method
Benjamin Kanarek post processing method | PentaxLife

Then I applied a little sharpening with Unsharp Mask (radius 1 & Strength 100) and High Pass Sharpen (radius 0.5, Strength 10, Overlay Blend)



Send me a PM if you want me to take it down.

Tim

[Jewelltrail]

atupdate: Tim,

Hope to don't mind but I took a couple of minutes to work on your image.

The two primary things I did was to up the contrast using Ben's method
Benjamin Kanarek post processing method | PentaxLife

Then I applied a little sharpening with Unsharp Mask (radius 1 & Strength 100) and High Pass Sharpen (radius 0.5, Strength 10, Overlay Blend)

That is absolutely fantastic!!! Good God mate Can I hire you to develop all my Raws? I need to start reading the above mentioned article, excuse me while I study & learn--hopefully.

[atupdate]

That is absolutely fantastic!!! Good God mate Can I hire you to develop all my Raws? I need to start reading the above mentioned article, excuse me while I study & learn--hopefully.

Thanks for the kind words. I would love to have a raw file for that canyon image. There is a lot good stuff there to work with.

Tim

[UpNorth]

Tim,

Hope to don't mind but I took a couple of minutes to work on your image.

The two primary things I did was to up the contrast using Ben's method
Benjamin Kanarek post processing method | PentaxLife

Then I applied a little sharpening with Unsharp Mask (radius 1 & Strength 100) and High Pass Sharpen (radius 0.5, Strength 10, Overlay Blend)



Send me a PM if you want me to take it down.

Tim

Thanks for the tweaking Tim. The only thing I'd say about your tweaking is that in real life the colors there were closer to my shot - the land out there is very orange. I've got about 15 - 20 shots from that location that day, including about 5 or 6 variations of the one I posted. Maybe I'll look through them again and see if another was "better" overall, and I'll post that.

Tim

[Jools]

Been admiring this thread for awhile. Marvelous work all around.
Got me a Sigma 10-20mm in the process.
I find this lens hard to work with. My copy feels real soft. Sometimes it looks like one side is out of focus compared to the other. This issue decreases when I use f22 and f32 for my better captures but that is real slow in many instances.
It is much harder to work with than the DA 10-17mm that I am more comfortable working with.

Any ideas or suggestion are more than welcome. And thanks for the prior posts on this thread because I have learned a bunch. A real gem of information.

So here's a couple of my better efforts.
Maybe I just need to work with this lens further.

[Jewelltrail]

Jools: My copy feels real soft. Sometimes it looks like one side is out of focus compared to the other.

Can you post an example of this--we will be glad to do all we can to help you.
JT

---

Last edited by Jewelltrail; 02-14-2011 at 10:36 PM.

[atupdate]

Thanks for the tweaking Tim. The only thing I'd say about your tweaking is that in real life the colors there were closer to my shot - the land out there is very orange. I've got about 15 - 20 shots from that location that day, including about 5 or 6 variations of the one I posted. Maybe I'll look through them again and see if another was "better" overall, and I'll post that.

Tim

Funny, I used the B&W duplicate layer in Benji's method because I thought using the color one was too orange. Not having visited there, I wanted to error on the "natural" looking side.

Tim

[Tamia]

Tim (UpNorth), I can sympathize with your not having had a chance to get to know your 10-20 before your trip -- you'll have to go back west!

Tim (atupdate), you do such great PP work. I wish I could acquire your skill. Thanks for the link to Ben's article.

Jools, I found that when shooting photos like yours, if I start by setting the aperture to f8 and focus in the near middle ground (for example, the mailbox in the first photo, and the large mature tree in the left of the 2nd) that the picture is quite sharp throughout. I'm still learning my way around this lens, having had it only a short time, but I've found it to be wonderfully sharp (unless operator error creeps in, that is).

[Cuchulainn]

I got a copy of the lens at christmas and have been very impressed with it.

It's nice for detail shots:


It also handles low-contrast misty days well:

[atupdate]

Thanks for the tweaking Tim. The only thing I'd say about your tweaking is that in real life the colors there were closer to my shot - the land out there is very orange. I've got about 15 - 20 shots from that location that day, including about 5 or 6 variations of the one I posted. Maybe I'll look through them again and see if another was "better" overall, and I'll post that.

Tim

Tim,

Here is a more saturated version. I did a little extra PP to bring out as much detail as I could.



Tim

---------- Post added 02-14-11 at 04:49 PM ----------

It also handles low-contrast misty days well:

I love the mood of this your second image. Nicely spotted.

Tim

[UpNorth]

Tim,

Here is a more saturated version. I did a little extra PP to bring out as much detail as I could.


Tim

Nice job Tim. That's much closer to the actual color of the place. They gotta' lot of orange out there.
As an FYI - just to give this shot some perspective - those three little white "dots" on the edge of the shore at about the 3:00 position, were boats!
If anyone gets out that way, it's worth a stop - even considering the about 1/2 mile trek (through sand) from the parking lot to the edge of the rim.

Tim (The Other One)

[qtopplings]

I love the ability of this lens when shooting straight into the sun. These shots also show the impressive dynamic range of the K-5. No post processing! I could probably use fill light to bring up the rocks a bit, but kind of like the dark.

[Jewelltrail]

atupdate: Tim,

Here is a more saturated version. I did a little extra PP to bring out as much detail as I could.

Tim, truly amazing what you have done with this image--I can only imagine what you would do with the Raw. Your efforts, IMO, probe that PPing is the single most important facotr in high quality images.

qtopplings I love the ability of this lens when shooting straight into the sun. These shots also show the impressive dynamic range of the K-5. No post processing! I could probably use fill light to bring up the rocks a bit, but kind of like the dark.

Agreed--the flare control of the 10-20mm is excellent. It is great to have you on-board, especially since we kind of stole you from the 10-24 Tamron Club. Are you happy with your Sigma? I can't wait to get my hands on a K5.

[qtopplings]

Tim, truly amazing what you have done with this image--I can only imagine what you would do with the Raw. Your efforts, IMO, probe that PPing is the single most important facotr in high quality images.



Agreed--the flare control of the 10-20mm is excellent. It is great to have you on-board, especially since we kind of stole you from the 10-24 Tamron Club. Are you happy with your Sigma? I can't wait to get my hands on a K5.

I'm very happy with the IQ of this lens. At times I question whether I need a UWA, since I love my Tamron 17-50 2.8 so much, and 17mm works for a lot of landscapes. I find that I change lenses more now, but 10mm is very dramatic when used correctly. I am getting more used to needing to get *closer* with 10mm rather than using it to capture distant landscapes.

I wasn't really stolen from the Tamron UWA club...it was basically no contest