[birdgirl55]

NEVER forget your camera at home, ALWAYS remember extra batteries and film and/or SD cards, and DEFINITELY keep Scotch tape with you... it is perfect for picking up debris and lint from your lens

[Peter G]

A friend recently remarked that he can’t isolate his subject by having the background blurred using his point and shoot camera. I explained that depth of field is determined by the interplay of three factors. First is the aperture, or lens opening size. All else equal, greater depth is obtained by stopping down (closing diaphragm, letting in less light). Second is the size of the sensor (or film negative). A smaller sensor will give you more depth. Third is the largest aperture the lens will give. Typically, a point and shoot will shoot at f 5.6 have a small sensor, and the subject is at least 2 meters away. Hence the point and shoot has all the factors for depth of field, not shallow field! To compare, a close-up shot of a bug has a shallow depth of field. This shallowness is more extreme when obtained with a camera with a larger sensor (DSLR) but same f stop.

[Ofer Hadas]

After 35 years of photography with Pentax equipment there are few rules to keep
* RTFM - when having your new camera - Read The F... Manual - actually I download the book before buying the camera to know what to look for.
* Reduce the items to set in the setting memory to the default ones - you don't want to take a quick short with the special setting of yesterday shootings.
* Try to keep the shutter speed to the zoom X2 (50mm @ 1/100; 200mm @ 1/500 etc).
* Be relaxed or creative ( ) - your mood is reflected in your pictures !!

[sarah]

I was given a macro lens for Christmas. I have never used one before and as I am still trying my luck at photography it took me a while to figure out how to use the lens! It kept giving an F - error. Thanks to pentax on facebook you managed to help me and sort it out.
While sitting in the African bush - a game reserve 2 hours from my house, I thought I would try my luck with this lens. I tried taking photos of anything small that came past me. Although my photos were coming out blury I tried and tried and eventually after swearing and cursing I got it right.
All you need is patience and the right photo will come your way. I was quiet excited about the outcome of this photo of a fly on a piece of bread that I had left out in the heat of the day.

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[Rob_Lamont]

Hi all, my tip is to remove your camera strap or secure it when using slower shutter speeds. As a rule of thumb, use a shutter speed at least double the focal length of the lens, quadruple if you are hand holding or if it is windy, etc. IE, 50mm lens means at least 1/100 sec or 1/200sec hand held. Next tip, keep an eye on EXIF data both while shooting (viewfinder or screen) and post production. Also, if you have left a remote release at home, use a 2 second timer to avoid shaking the camera when you push the shutter.
Happy snapping!

[tausbahl]

Foreberedelse er det vigtigste. Når du ved hvad dine motiver er så indstil din Pentax' s grundindstillinger så du er klar med det samme til første skud mv tausbahl

[Courtney]

If you think that focusing with a wide-angle lenses is easy - you are deceiving yourself. Even with them the incorrect focus is immediately visible if you look at the picture with high magnification. My solution is to shoot with manual focus, in Live View Mode with 10x magnification in the preview. This way you could focus very precisely where you want to.
When focusing with an ultra wide-angle lenses there is another peculiarity. The focal plane which in principle must be flat and parallel to the sensor in these lenses very often is distorted. One such lens can be said that disposes with two planes of focus. This means that while making a landscape you focus in any subject in the center of the frame the corners probably will not have the desired focus and will look blurry. This can lead to the conclusion that the lens is of poor quality. However this is not quite so. Simply the focal plane for the angles is displaced nearer or further away from this for the center (depending on the lens).
Sometimes this difference can be compensated by stopping down the aperture and the increased depth of field but unfortunately not always. In some cases the difference is so big that even when the aperture is f/16 the corners will still be out of focus.
There is a somewhat solution for this too. For this purpose it is most convenient to shoot from a tripod and:

1) Activate Live View;
2) move the area for focusing to somewhere of about two thirds (2/3) of the center of the image and zoom to 10x preview;
3) focus manually there and stop down the aperture to f/8, f/11.

This will ensure you nearly the same depth of field across the picture and could give you the maximum from a wide-angle lens in most cases.

Hope this will help!

[staxandy]

A solid approach to taking highly detailed pictures of small objects is to use a technique called focus stacking, where you take multiple pictures of the subject, all focused on different parts of the subjects, in order to capture it entirely in focus, and then merge them in post, in my case using Photoshop.

In my attempt at taking photos of various minerals and rock samples, I ended up using a simple setup, consisting of my trusty K-3; the DA 50mm f1.8 lens; a tripod - set on a table, the shaft holding the camera reversed, so that the camera was mounted facing downwards, at the table; a cable shutter release; natural light coming from a window and a flashlight.

My approach was to focus as near as possible (turn the focus ring as close as it will turn), then slide the tripod down so that the highest point of the subject was in focus. This way, I was as close as possible to the subject, resulting in a larger subject in the frame (more pixels, more details ). Then I would take a picture, focus a bit further, take another one, and so on, until I captured shots that included every single part of the mineral in focus.

[steve917]

Always check your camera before you leave home that battery's are fully charged and all functions are operational!

[findlandezul]

When shooting film, especially with older SLR's, always make sure you can get as close as possible to your desired subject in order to get the correct exposure. Especially if you have older center spot measuring cameras. If newer, you can use the exposure lock button (AE-L) so that the camera remembers it's reading.

Here is a high-constrast shot, with dark zones and christmas lights.



https://flic.kr/p/BHcwFK

[yoko666]

Well, what to say, i would like this lens so i can zoom even closer to this beast, as i don't have money right now to afford it.. no job, no money, no lens..

[Jon Petersen]

When photographing technical items with colours and chrome, and you want your pics to actually show how it looks - choose a grey day for the soft light. Especially if you don´t have a great studio with lots of lamps with diffusers.....

Here, as an example - a drumkit.



Pentax K5 - Pentax M 28/2

[Gaberlunzi]

Small sensor cameras can take good close up photos, so keep one with you when you are not carrying your SLR. If your camera does not have an extending lens, as is the case with the Pentax WG series, you can use the flash with closeups and it will not cast a shadow from the lens. Experiment with distance and take a note of the point where the flash is too powerful.

[erikssou]

Compose your shot ahead of taking the picture, simply have your Camera eye on when strolling around.
Or, simply bring your luck with you when shooting that picture.

[Nick Clark]

What makes a good photograph? Does the photo tell a story? How does it touch the viewer? I'm including three variations of a photo I made several years ago with a Pentax WP 5 megapixel camera. The subject of the photo is an old one room schoolhouse in northeastern Iowa. To me, the photo expresses a sentimental longing for a long lost past. The question is, how do I best express this. The first example is the color rendering that appeared in the viewfinder. It's good, but doesn't quite give a feeling of lost time. The second example is a selenium toned copy of the same photo. It's good, but a little cliched (to me). The last photo is a b & w rendering of the same photo. This is the one I like. I think it gives a vision of a time that has escaped us. I have taken many other photos with various Pentax cameras, from H3V to K5 and K3 and the goals of telling a story and touching the viewer have always been paramount.