[TMH]

Overcast day here, light drizzle most of the day.

Just picked up the very inexpensive Pentax DA 50mm 1.8 to begin my “glass” collection. Only other lens atm is the kit 18-135.

Educating myself on DoF, the rose came out kinda nice, I didn’t even see the water drops when I took the pic. Original image RAW, pp with Luminar3, Luminar “Look” Super Sharp 100%

Just thought I’d share, comments appreciated.

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[Penta]

Nice shot and details with the great pentax colours, enjoy!

[johninns]

Nice shot

[macman24054]

Great shot! The plastic fantastic is a very capable lens. Have fun with it.

[Just1MoreDave]

I think one of the harder skills to learn is estimating the exact aperture you need for the desired DOF. It's not too hard to get there with trial and error, which I do a lot. But if you only have time for one shot, setting up the camera in advance is useful. It helps if you can estimate distance and subject size accurately.

For a good example of what I'm talking about, set the DA 18-135 to 135mm, aperture to f8 and focus on something at about the minimum distance the lens will focus to. See how little DOF your shot has.

[clackers]

Yeah, f11's a good aperture for shooting flowers, f1.8's a good aperture for bokeh.

[DeKay]

The one thing I do love about the KP is the Depth of Field Bracketing. One press of the shutter and I get three shots at different apertures.
All we need now is to get Pentax to add this to a firmware update for the other models in the range.

[mikesbike]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your shot. You focus point in getting this kind of effect is spot on. So many would have used multipoint AF which would have perhaps grabbed onto an outer petal. Since the flower is off-center I am wondering if you used manual focusing. I noticed you used a little reduction of exposure by setting your exposure comp to get a slightly underexposed dreamy effect. Very nice! But remember, we are viewing on a backlit screen. If making a print this might turn out too dark.

Using center-weighted metering for such a shot may not be best, as the flower will be much brighter than the background. Center weighted is ok if there is no backlighting and the central area of the frame contains pretty much equal components of light and dark that will provide a balanced exposure.

As to your equipment, good choice! Your DA 18-135mm lens is also very capable. Since it has WR construction, which is great in drippy weather, it can also deliver impressive closeups.

You are starting out in advanced processing operation, which is fine. But you might also try shooting RAW + JPEG to compare what the camera's processor gives you. Just be sure to go into the Custom Image menus to implement Fine Sharpening, at least in the "Bright" category, which is best to have your camera set to for most shooting needs. Have your mode dial set to Av as you did in your shot, or on the "P" mode, then access your adjustments via the info button. The 4 buttons around the ok button will now serve for navigation. The Custom Image section should be the first one. Hit ok to open the section. You might find it is already on the "Bright" category. Then hit info again to open it for adjustment. Tab down to Sharpening and using your thumb dial, put an "F" by the "S" and you are done. Hit ok and just turn off the camera, which will exit the screen.

BTW- "bokeh" means the quality (smoothness) and degree of background blur.

[TMH]

Thanks much for the reply’s, particularly Milesbikes!

This whole photography thing is proving to be quite entertaining, challenging and most of all, fun! At a month shy of 70 I guess I’m a late bloomer. I blame it all on my dad, an aerospace engineer/amateur photographer. Just not a good mix. Long story short, endless shot composition plus aperture/focus refinements for a family of 6 vacation/holiday/scenic shots. My sisters often broke out in tears. I just got mad 😡 and said I’ll never put MY family through this!

All that is behind me now, I have grandkids to torture!

I am shooting RAW+, upon the advice of folks on this forum. Still in the process of tweaking settings on the K70, aiming for my style, whatever that may be.

This pic of one of my granddaughters is cropped from a much larger image and processed in Luminar3. I’m just amazed at what one can accomplish with a good camera and post processing software.