[caliscouser]

Your last set of photos look a little over-exposed and a little cool and I think you are looking for a little more pop in terms of sharpness and color:
I'd suggest the following:

- Use the lens hood with lens, this may help with contrast.
- Set Exposure Compensation to -1/3
- Change White Balance to Daylight or Cloudy to warm things up. See which works best for you.
- Set 'Custom Image' to 'Bright' and increase Saturation, Contrast and Sharpness by +1 or +2

Re shoot and see if things look better.

[mgisbert]

Hello,

Here I am again with the same spot. This time I think is under-exposed instead of over-exposed. I used a lens hood, tripod and I tried to find the settings you mentioned but I'm not sure to have found them properly. I tried also automatic landscape mode and automatic mode in the last two ones. For me is the same result. What do you think? Is there something else I can do? I'm considering selling it until I have money for a proper camera for landscapes because there's no point in carrying it for this result.

Thank you very much,
Miguel

[rogerstg]

Here I am again with the same spot. This time I think is under-exposed instead of over-exposed. I used a lens hood, tripod and I tried to find the settings you mentioned but I'm not sure to have found them properly. I tried also automatic landscape mode and automatic mode in the last two ones. For me is the same result. What do you think? Is there something else I can do? I'm considering selling it until I have money for a proper camera for landscapes because there's no point in carrying it for this result.

First, the results are not too bad considering it's a reduced resolution jpeg of an uninteresting subject. You didn't mention your focus point; it's important. FWIW, your setup seems to do better at f16 than f8 for depth of field. If you focused at infinity, the near sharpness is ~21 feet at F8, but ~10 feet at F16. Maybe try f11. Also, since there are atmospheric effects in this area, like haze, did you use a polarizing filter? Why did you use ISO 400 instead of 100? ISO 100 would get the best out of your sensor and allow more latitude in post processing.

Respectfully, but frankly, IMO your limitations are knowledge and experience, not equipment, yet. Sometimes, people get great shots right out of the camera. But it's the exception, not the rule. Learn some basic post processing techniques. At some point, you will get to a point that better lenses and a better sensor (camera) will help.

[mikesbike]

I would like to know how you are reading the meter's information in the camera's VF. Of course, the meter is not always right, and you have to know when that will occur and then use the Manual mode to take meter readings on a certain part of the scene, but for a scene of this sort with a good balance of lighter and darker areas, the meter indication should be fine. Your first two have good exposure settings and were shot in Manual mode, while the last two are under exposed, and were shot in the Landscape mode- one of the automated "Scene" modes. This mode will assume the desire to be maximum DOF, and will therefore automatically set as small an aperture as possible with the degree of lighting and the ISO, in this case f/16. Metering for exposure will be automatic. Why the camera under exposed in this mode is mystery, as the K-x is known for tending towards over rather than under exposure. Could be the lens too, not being as accurate at smaller apertures. When you see this kind of thing happen in any of the automatic exposure modes, just employ your exposure compensation control.

It appears you might be using the standard multi-point AF setting, so the camera might be choosing the wrong point to focus on, which here might be the tree branches in the foreground to the left, since they are closest to the camera. If you use spot AF instead, you can train it where you decide, hold the focus, reposition the camera while holding focus, and then complete the shutter press. Doing that and getting the results you are looking for will take practice as to just where to train your focus, and what aperture is best to use.

You should not require a tripod for a scene in good lighting like this one, as it will not be difficult to get high enough shutter speed at whatever aperture you will need. But if you will be doing a telephoto shot and want better DOF, you will definitely need a smallish aperture, and a higher shutter speed than you would with a normal or a wide angle shot.

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Last edited by mikesbike; 06-29-2019 at 01:58 PM.

[aleonx3]

A lot of the good points about the inability to decent photos have been suggested and discussed by many experienced folks here. When I look at one of the sample images included here I don't see anything that is in focus at all when enlarged. Since the k-x is an entry-level DSLR, I am not sure it has the AF fine adjustment feature on the camera that you can use to fine-tune the focus accuracy or not (perhaps lens problem). In addition, if you set the camera on AF.S shooting mode in "release-priority" instead of "focus-priority" in the custom menu, you can shoot all day long without getting anything in focus at all (kind of like don't care about getting sharp photo). Also, keeping in mind that IF it is the first time the OP is using an APS-C DSLR camera, then expecting 'everything' to be in focus is unreal when comparing to cell-phone photos (because of much smaller sensor size).

Anyway, just want to throw in a few thoughts; hopefully it could be just a few minor adjustment to be made and, of course additional knowledge would be helpful as well. By the way, for "focus accuracy and sharpness" test, I would not use a lanscape scene as a test environment, but rather something closer and manageable so I can see the subject with much greater details to ensure that the camera/lens setup is up to the task.

[mgisbert]

Thank you very much everybody, aleonx3 I have tried with small and closer objects and the results are good, my problem is with landscapes and it would be my main kind of shot. I'm pretty sure rogerstg that my lack of knowledge and experience is a very important point but what I was trying here is to check with your help (and I feel really grateful for that) the maximum quality I can get for landscapes or at least to imagine it or to have an idea considering I still can improve my experience and knowledge. But the point is that, to be honest, I'm not sure if the maximum quality I could get will be amazing enough to worth the extra weight and space to carry all of this to the top of a mountain and the extra time inverted afterwards in post processing. At least for now.

Thank you very much anyway, I really appreciate all your advices,
Miguel

[Photobill]

It may of been mentioned already but looking at your first photos that you posted you need to up your shutter speed!!! Being new to the DSLR you can't expect to start shooting at speeds of 1/40 of a second and get sharp photos. It is very hard to hold the camera still and press the shutter without introducing movement. Even Image stabilization will not help on movement that some photographers create when pressing the shutter button.
Later you posted that you had used a tripod. Did you press the shutter release and not use a 2 sec delay? This as well can cause movement to the camera.
Cell phones nowadays can take amazing photos!!! Millions are being spent to keep improving them. They are the right choice for many. You can point at your subject press the button and let all that R&D work for you. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that!!!!
Now DSLR's takes some learning. You can leave it on auto and it will do OK, but it might not do as well as your phone. BUT when you start to learn about the features and how to use them this is were the DSLR will shine. There is a learning curve that only you can decide if its worthy your time. For most of us hear it was & is worth the time.
I hope this helps a little
Photobill
Up that shutter speed and practice good technique on holding the camera & pressing the shutter.

[mikesbike]

The K-x has a lot of capabilities, meaning you can customize your results according to what you are trying to do, but it is a relatively simple to operate camera for all around picture-taking. It is designed with amateurs, even beginners in mind. If you want to keep things simple select an automatic program like the Landscape mode, and your camera will give you a smaller aperture to make sure a maximum percentage of your scene will be sharp.

As to good focus, there are tools like a DOF scale you can get for very little money. With it, you can tell in advance what will be sharp with a given aperture between what distances. You focus on a point and the scale will reveal what will be sharp for the distance behind and in front. Then if you don't have a high enough shutter speed at that aperture, you'd need to increase your ISO sensitivity.

[MarkJerling]

Thank you very much everybody, aleonx3 I have tried with small and closer objects and the results are good, my problem is with landscapes and it would be my main kind of shot. I'm pretty sure rogerstg that my lack of knowledge and experience is a very important point but what I was trying here is to check with your help (and I feel really grateful for that) the maximum quality I can get for landscapes or at least to imagine it or to have an idea considering I still can improve my experience and knowledge. But the point is that, to be honest, I'm not sure if the maximum quality I could get will be amazing enough to worth the extra weight and space to carry all of this to the top of a mountain and the extra time inverted afterwards in post processing. At least for now.

Thank you very much anyway, I really appreciate all your advices,
Miguel

Miguel, you may want to try those test shots on a nice cool morning. Heat and haze won't help if you're trying for really sharp landscapes.

I've had a play with two of your images in Lightroom. (If you'd like to post links to the RAW files, we can do this even better)
As you can see, considering the subject matter, they're not really that bad.

[rogerstg]

my smartphone pictures still have better definition. So there's no point to carry my camera.

I wouldn't mind seeing those comparison photo's of smart phone to dslr, or better yet, new comparison photos based on what you now know about using your camera. I think you would be pleasantly surprised.

[Roaming]

Loving this, a very useful tutorial for us beginners ( K1 is in the mail literally) Kx on the shelf