Originally posted by robgski I think the images look great, but green is my favorite color.
Whenever I buy used equipment, I reset it to factory defaults, then assess what settings I need to change.
true haha, green is my favourite colour as well, the factory reset is a good tip, I hadn't thought of doing one because I was lucky enough to find one of the last (possibly even the last) brand new KP in the Netherlands, maybe even europe, at a shop in Den Haag, but it is quite possible that this was a showroom model so a factory reset might be a good idea
Originally posted by rpjallan Just a couple more thoughts, after seeing the images, the green might be looking a bit over the top because it is really the only colour in the image. Also, are you using window light here? I have found in some cases, to get the best colour, manual white balance is worth a go. It's a little bit of a pain but it's not like your subject is going to rush off all of a sudden. Another thing, Custom Image settings (or whatever they are called on your camera) won't affect the colours of your RAW files. If you want to use the jpegs, I suggest using a setting with lower saturation & contrast. You might even be able to change some of the settings. I think it's preferable to be able to boost those later if need be.
the green does contrast quite a bit with the black background, as pictures I actually quite like them as is, but since they are product photos for our webshop I'm going for color accuracy haha, the light I'm using here is a small led light, not ideal I know (working on getting a propper lighting solution), but previously with my canon eos 100D never had any issues using it, I tried experimenting with the temperature setting on the light, but the camera on auto always compensates to right about the same colours, one thing I did noticed just today while taking some pictures outside is that the more natural light hits the subject/scene, the more natural the greens look, in shady spots I would notice it more than straight in the sun. several people have suggested looking into the jpeg profiles, I'll do that and try a lower saturation and contrast setting, seems like my camera still has a lot of features for me to learn haha
Originally posted by pschlute Thanks. The greens don't look overdone to me, but obviously I am not looking at them on your screen. Do they look the same on a phone screen or someone else's computer monitor ?
I do notice that the EXIF shows +2 for both contrast and sharpening which may lead to a more vibrant image.
it does differ a bit from screen to screen, but generally I can notice right away on the camera screen, I'm not sure where that +2 is comming from, it does seem to be consistent across all of my pictures, I'll do a factory reset as suggested by robgski and see if that changes anything, otherwise, I'll look into where that setting can be changed
Originally posted by UncleVanya You can customize the jpg profiles in the KP. Try the natural one to start and see if that tones things down too much. Then work from there or the one you have now and adjust.
I'll do this, seems like there's still a lot of customization options for me to learn, coming from a canon eos 100D I'm not used to this amount of features haha, but loving every bit of it so far!
Originally posted by JPT I think it's a really good idea to look at the Custom Image options (JPEG profiles) and how you can customize them. Pentax offers a huge amount of customizability to the JPEG output. There are quite a lot of presets to start with and then many parameter adjustments to customize each one.
To get the look you want, it might be good to take a RAW file and use the in-camera RAW development tool to get the look you want out of the camera. Then you can use those settings going forward. The way to do this is to look at the Raw image in playback mode and use the Manage Image function. Not 100% sure which button it is on the KP, but it's AE-L on the K-3 III.
Actually, I've had the chance to see a couple of presentations and take part in a Pentax seminar on Custom Image settings here in Japan. In one of them, the engineer responsible for developing the feature spoke about the differences between some of the preset options. The "Natural" setting is supposed not to have a strong bias, but still to have the "Pentax-ness" about it. I think this might mean strong greens, among other things. On the other hand, they later added "Flat" for people who just wanted a completely neutral looking image. It does not have this particular Pentax character at all.
The other seminar, they suggested to think of the presets as just a starting point to add your own customizations to. This was focused on what you can achieve by shooting RAW and doing in-camera development.
I guess if you want more customization than this, doing RAW development in a computer application is the way to go.
References:
About Custom image Presets: Give further expression with PENTAX "Custom Image" | RICOH IMAGING
About Parameter Adjustment: More info | Give further expression with PENTAX "Custom Image" | RICOH IMAGING
oh wow, thank you for the detailed answe, I was already planning on googling it later, but it appears here is all the info i need to work with the profiles haha, I'll give it a try today and update tomorrow
Originally posted by kypfer Something occurred to me … there's not a "skylight" filter or similar on the lens which is skewing the colour balance, is there?
I noticed, in an advert posting, the offered "skylight" filter had a definite magenta hue, which is, of course, the opposite to green.
no filter on the lens no, but indeed something to keep in mind!