[pschlute]

Given that digital images are cheap (had not thought of that), I may start bracketing the heck out of my shots

That is a good idea and useful for HDR processing. Instead of using the HDR mode in the camera, use your bracketed shots to create a HDR merge in software. I use Lightroom or Photoshop , but there are freeware versions too.

[Lowell Goudge]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions. To those who didn't read my intro post (it's Pulitzer prize stuff... ), I have a K-1ii. Now I've put in two memory cards (because I can) and shoot RAW (DNG?)

yes because most photo editors may not be up to date on PEF format

on one card and jpeg on the other. I figured I'd have to experiment, but I wanted to see where to start. Sounds like -0.5 EV or so is a good place to start, and for max dynamic range, try HDR shooting. I've played with the K-1ii's HDR mode and have had good to hilarious results (I should post a couple of the "hilarious" results as they look almost cartoonish).

in stead of hdr, try the highlight and shadow protect options, it looks at the overall dynamic range of the shot and rescaled the jpeg to give better detail in the shadows by compressing the linear part of the S curve, (less bits in greyscale in the linear portion)

I'm slowly learning this rather complex camera. Good news is the basic controls are a lot like my old PZ-1, so I'm enjoying playing with the Av and Tv setting on "P" to change things like I would do with the PZ-1. Now I have a THIRD variable in the ISO number. I never shot slide film over 400 ISO, so being able to get up to 6400 (or a lot more, but I've limited it to 6400 for now) is insane. One of these days I'll try some of the REALLY insane ISO numbers and see what the images look like.

I went also from PZ-1 to digital, although earlier than you but the PZ-1 is a great camera. On my K5 and K1MKII I shoot TAV when birding with long lenses and let iso go to 6400 also, but for shorter faster lenses you need to be careful, as you can quickly forget where you are and over expose. Normally I shoot AV mode, and let the shutter go where it needs to when travelling around

Again, thanks for the suggestions. These give me a good place to start experimenting. Given that digital images are cheap (had not thought of that), I may start bracketing the heck out of my shots. Why not? I've got a couple of backup batteries and big memory cards. Note to you younglings, the memory card in my K-1ii has several orders of magnitude more storage than the washing machine sized device I put stored my dissertation data on. This is a great time to be alive...

Given 64 MB when I started on digital in 2003 was 20 x the cost of 16 GB today, photos are free. Shoot as many shots as you like, the camera records the settings and you can look at what you like and learn the best settings quickly.

[dmach47]

That is why many of us don't do in-camera HDR...


Steve

LOL. In defense of the in-camera HDR, a couple of them came out fine. It's just when I went the HDR3 that I started getting cartoon results. It also may have been the subject. I'm still going to "test" it some more. When I did HDR "lite" (HDR auto or HDR1), the results were not bad at all. Obviously, I need to practice more and see what I can find out. BTW, the HDR I did was also hand held, which might contribute to all the problems with HDR...

---------- Post added 05-12-21 at 07:13 AM ----------

I've not figured out how to edit my posts here yet, so I'm not trying to artificially increase my post count, I'm just a bit slow. Eventually, I'll get it...

Again, thanks for all the suggestions. I am taking notes and will be shooting a lot this weekend, trying out as many of the suggestions as I can in one weekend.

An interesting bit of information is that I can read the raw files (DNG) with my free IrfanView 64 program. I don't know (yet) if it would allow me to display the shot details, but again, I'm still working on it. I've used IrfanView for a long time, so I'm very familiar with it.

Another thing I like about this new one is since it stores all of the shot data, I no longer have to record it. I had a little microcassette recorder to document the shot data. Now I don't have to do that anymore. Progress!

[5ks]

LOL. In defense of the in-camera HDR, a couple of them came out fine. It's just when I went the HDR3 that I started getting cartoon results. It also may have been the subject. I'm still going to "test" it some more. When I did HDR "lite" (HDR auto or HDR1), the results were not bad at all.

The in-camera HDR settings/effects in K-1 are good to know about. HDR1 and HDR2 are often very useful but HDR 3 and espcecialyy "ADV" are exaggerated ("cartoonish"). This applies to JPG.


If you apply HDR to DNG (RAW) files, it's nothing but exposure bracketing. The result is stored in one huge DNG file, that contains all three original DNG's and a JPG preview, which shows the eventual "cartoonish" effects too. But the effectes are not included in the DNG's. Ricoh's DCU software can be used to separate the original DNG's out of the one "HDR DNG", and you can then play with those in post processing - e.g. merging them again with new adjustments. (At least in Lightroom).

My conclusion is: whenever I want to do HDR, I shoot in DNG+JPG mode and use HDR1 or HDR2. If the in-camera JPG is good enough, I keep it. If not (but the picture is otherwise good or at least promising), I keep the huge DNG, split it to the three originals and then see, what I can do with them later ... Some times the 'middle' DNG covers all the dynamic range I need.

May take some time to learn this, but if you're interested in HDR, maybe worth trying.

[mikesbike]

If saturated colors is your goal, you have other options in the digital realm besides exposure compensation. You don't mention what digital camera(s) you have. My K-5IIs and KP have a 'bright' mode that can be used when shooting jpeg images. This mode accentuates colors and contrast more than the 'natural' mode. The parameters in each mode, including colors and contrast and others, are customizable. You can crank up the color saturation a little or a lot to suit your taste.

Also, when editing your jpeg or RAW images in photo software, you can adjust the color saturation slider. RAW images give you much more control over everything, but there is a learning curve with the software. I shoot mostly jpeg, and am a little embarrassed that I do, but it's convenient and serves most of my needs.

I agree with this. I did a lot of slide shooting, and the PZ-1p turned out to be one of my very favorite film bodies. As you are discovering, the control afforded by digital compared to film, is amazing! With Pentax, this is even true for JPEG images right out of the camera. When doing this, I've found the K-1 II tends to have a more conservative sharpening default compared to my better APS-C models, such as the KP or the K-5 IIs. So I bumped up the sharpening level a bit more in the Custom Image menus, and then also make sure to implement "Fine Sharpening" as well in the Custom Image menus for better fine detail, and in case having gone a bit too far in over-sharpening will also compensate for the ill-effects of that.

As to compensating for exposure, I've found this to vary significantly between models. The K-1 II seems very accurate to me in metering exposure value. Have fun-the possibilities are endless!!

[dmach47]

...So I bumped up the sharpening level a bit more in the Custom Image menus, and then also make sure to implement "Fine Sharpening" as well in the Custom Image menus for better fine detail, and in case having gone a bit too far in over-sharpening will also compensate for the ill-effects of that.

So where are the "sharpening level" settings on the K-1ii? I could not find those settings. Also, do these "sharpening settings" only apply to JPEG images, or do they also work on the DNG RAW files?

...The K-1 II seems very accurate to me in metering exposure value. Have fun-the possibilities are endless!!

So far, with the bracketing I've done, the K-1ii does seem to be VERY good at guessing the proper exposure, no matter what I throw at it. In a few cases, the under exposed one was the best, and for even fewer cases, the overexposed one was best. I started with bracketing +0.7, -0.7, and then -2.0 EV. The two ends were almost always too much/little light. I've now been going with +0.3, -0.7, and then -1.7 EV. Again, the "best exposure" has been the middle one, although there are more cases of the two ends being "correct". I'm using the histogram to see how much saturation or zero signal I'm getting.
Lots to learn on this camera. And no, I've not yet tried working with the "not perfect" images in software to see if the details I want are actually there. I still have a slide film-type attitude towards this new system.

[mikesbike]

I agree with this method, but it can always depend on the subject and conditions.

Right. And to complicate things more, camera models vary as to tendencies towards under/over exposure on their own. But according to Pop Photo camera tests back in the day, this was also true of film SLR cameras as well.

[pschlute]

So where are the "sharpening level" settings on the K-1ii? I could not find those settings. Also, do these "sharpening settings" only apply to JPEG images, or do they also work on the DNG RAW files?

They only affect the jpeg image. If you shoot raw files the preview jpeg will use those settings but when you open up the raw file in a raw converter they wont be applied. Raw converters will apply a level of "input" sharpening by default (which you can change), and you should apply your own "output" sharpening after you have done all your editing and resizing.

[dmach47]

They only affect the jpeg image...you should apply your own "output" sharpening after you have done all your editing and resizing.

Thank you.

[RICHARD L.]

Extremely bright scenes (like a sunset) may require some OVEREXPOSURE to counteract the natural tendency of the meter to produce 18% gray tones. Normal picture-taking is better with - 0,3 or - 0,7 stop UNDEREXPOSURE. Best stategy in the beginning : BRACKET YOUR IMAGES. For sunsets use + 1, + 2 and + 3 stop overexposure, for normal pictures (front or sidelit), bracket - 1, - 0,7 and - 0,3.

Pictures without any exposure tampering may turn out alright with Post Processing most of the time. Take notes of the exposure you use (EXIF's play this role) and you'll soon learn which exposure adjustment is the best for the scene at hand.

Regards



+1 overexposure applied here.

[Wheatfield]

I've recently moved from film to digital cameras. When I took slide film (I almost always shot slide film), the general rule of thumb was to shoot a bit under exposed (like about 0.5 stops). That was to get a more "saturated" look to the colors. That general guide served me well for the many years I shot slide film.

So what is the general guide for digital photography? I would assume that the point is to get as much of the image between the digital 0% (no signal) and digital 100% (saturation), but how do I do that?

Shoot digital the same way you shot slides, and for the same reason.

[mikesbike]

I

So where are the "sharpening level" settings on the K-1ii? I could not find those settings. Also, do these "sharpening settings" only apply to JPEG images, or do they also work on the DNG RAW files?

I haven't done in a while, but as I recall there is a way to apply your JPEG camera settings to your RAW shots, which could be time-saving.

As long as you don't have your mode dial set on "Auto" (which defeats most controls and will not allow access to most adjustments) you can easily access the Custom Image menus with the K-1 II via the button to the right of the OK button. Then the 4 buttons around the OK button are used for navigation. To make adjustments, hit the "info" button. The default setting of the camera is on the "Bright" category. In this category, sharpening by default is up by + 1 from the midpoint. I have found JPEG images from the K-1 II in the default "Bright" setting to look a bit soft compared to some other Pentax models, in this case the KP- which was verified in the Imaging Resource "comparometer". So in the case of the K-1 II, I increased sharpening level up by yet one more notch, then I added "Fine Sharpening" by using the thumb dial, as I always do with all my Pentax DSLR models. This will yield better fine detail in your images. Then just hit "OK" and shut off the camera.

[dmach47]

Thanks for the replies. So far, after another weekend of shooting stuff, I'm finding that a 3 shot bracket at +0.3, -0.7, and -1.7 seem to cover most cases. Now I've yet to play with post-processing to see what is actually in the image (even if the default is either too bright or too dark).
I also found out the shake reduction doesn't work for 1/2 s exposures with the 28-105 lens....
But it almost works for a 1/8 s exposure.

[tokyoscape]

As for shake reduction, it is depended on what lens you are using too. On DA10-17, 1/8 at 10 to 17mm will always work. 1/2 .. maybe. The wider the lens, the better it is.

[dmach47]

I shot some more this last weekend and found that the -1.7, -0.7, and +0.3 EV cover just about every image. I'm now looking at the histograms to see if I saturated or "zero'ed" any pixels. So far, I am at times getting saturated pixels, but no "zero signal" pixels. It must get sorta non-linear at the low end. I know I got more than one slide with total black.