[kenafein]

Well thanks everyone for the quick responses. I would agree that obviously photography is not my forte - however why would anyone need to worry about manually setting the WB when the camera has an automatic setting? Is that not what automatic means? And this is the first that I've heard of it not working very well - had I known that who knows. I wish I would have kept the K20D a little longer just to see what more I could have gotten out of it. My dad's K-r though is just so much better than my K20D (In low light) so I am hopeful that the K30 (which I just picked up btw) will be better still. I will shoot pictures in RAW from now on - I just don't do much in post processing or very little so didn't think there was much need for it.

I really do appreciate ALL the responses and will be sure to get myself a little better educated as well - my favorite response had to be SpecialK's

RAW just gives you more options. You can shoot RAW+ which will save the RAW and the JPEG. If you're happy with the JPEG then no fussing needed, otherwise it will let you save or improve a shot. If you don't want to save both file types, then you can save to RAW and run a batch process that will shoot out JPEGs with minimal effort on your part.

[Tanzer]

Congrats on the K-30. I would suggest you still work on flash technique, there will be times when you still need it, especially with the kids. Also, with the K-30, you can do off-camera flash, a lot of fun. You can also pick up a flash diffuser/cup, this gives you more options whether the flash is on- or off-camera.

[NoMaD_PS]

actually here's the photo I've taken at about 7 PM in rainy day. Shot at 1600 ISO, noise decreased in Lightroom. The lens is Samyang 85mm



If I could use a flash the result can be even better.

I use to say that photographers 100 years ago took great pictures with a wooden box with brass lens and curtain. And today we can't shoot a brick wall with auto-focus, auto-WB, shake-reduction, extended-DD camera with bells and whistles. So it goes - we all replace old hand-made chairs with acid-colored plastic zig-zags from Ikeyah.

New equipment can improve you technique but not that much as experience does. Since you have new camera and don't like your K20, you can send it to me, I'll treat her well

[Richard Spencer]

There is no question. The K30 is a superb machine that will serve you well. However jpegs from you K20d are not bad once you sort out the white balance.

[Venturi]

The issues you are having are not the result of inferior equipment, but rather inferior operation. And I mean no insult to you by saying that.

The K20D is no slouch of a camera. In fact, it is an extremely capable piece of equipment. It has strengths and weaknesses just like every camera that ever has and ever will be made. You need to learn how it handles different types and levels of light.

It wasn't all that long ago (about 10yrs) that 95% of the photographers on planet Earth were shooting film that was 'hard-wired' with a daylight white balance. You either learned how to use filters, or you hoped your lab would color correct your prints for you, because otherwise you got yellow and green photos if you were shooting indoors without a flash. And, you either used a flash in low-light conditions or you forfeited the shot.

But hello digital age, now everybody is their own lab and we've got software to replace filters. So, in order to get the right color balance you've got to know how to a) operate your camera's white balance settings, and b) color correct your images in post-processing. Then c) go learn about light; Light, Science and Magic is a great place to start. And, d) buy a flash and learn how to use it. Your cherub won't be harmed by good light and your photographs will be 900% better.

You can still go out and buy a newer camera. But if you've had that K20D for 4 years now and still haven't figured out how to maximize its potential, you're going to be even farther behind with a K30 or a K5.

[k5astro]

Just click "Auto Enhance" for your post processing of RAW. If you don't like it, then you can apply your own settings but usually auto enhance does a very good job. If you really have no intension of post processing, there is nothing wrong with using jpeg and one of the settings like portrait, landscape, etc.

[Marc Sabatella]

Well thanks everyone for the quick responses. I would agree that obviously photography is not my forte - however why would anyone need to worry about manually setting the WB when the camera has an automatic setting?

Because automatic isn't magic. It has to guess what color the light is based on the colors it sees in the phot. It can tell there is a lot of yellow going on, but if it assumed the light was yellow every time it saw yellow in a picture and therefore tried to remove the yellow, youd never be able be able to take a picture of a banana, or a sunflower, or a canary. So it errs on the side of being too conservative. That's just how it is. Get on the habit of changing WB when shooting in yellow light, or, as others have mentined, of shooting RAW and setting WB on PP. either way, it's not a big deal and takes only seconds to do.

[MPrince]

You are going to get subject motion blur shooting a baby at a shutter speed of 1/90, and you are going to get orange photos using AWB under tungsten lighting. AWB has a range of 4000-8000K, and tungsten lighting has a white balance of 2800-3200K. AWB works very well when shooting under conditions that fit the auto range, but it is unrealistic to expect AWB to perform well when shooting outside its range.

There is nothing wrong with your camera, you just need to learn how to use it.

[UnknownVT]

However jpegs from you K20d are not bad once you sort out the white balance.

I agree - looking at the original in the OP - it is basically just a white balance issue.
The AWB probably was either overwhelmed or fooled due to the very strong colors -
using the preset Tungsten balance may have gotten results closer to Richard's
sometimes Tungsten makes the scene a bit too blue for the conditions - could try the fluorescent W(arm) white setting. One can also set Manual White balance - using a white or gray sheet under the lighting conditions.

You can easily get a more desirable result by pretty simple post processing -
use the original out of the camera JPG
(it's vital to use this, and not any post-processed or cropped shot - it has to be the original or unaltered copy of)
open it in PDCU (Pentax Digital Camera Utility) it may have been called Photo Laboratory in its earlier version - the Free software that came with the camera -
under the right upper tab White Balance - Try Override and select Tungsten or Warm white Fluorescent and see if you like the results -
if not, then select the Gray point setting and click on something that should be white - like the collar or sleeve of the shirt and see if you like that.

I cannot do that on the pic you posted since it is not an original copy - but I also tried to correct the white balance - in my very olde photo editor (Ulead PhotoImpact 8) I selected white point on the collar - it immediately got pretty good - but not as good as Richard's above -
I had to use color balance and add a bit more blue to get this final result -

[Richard Spencer]

UnknownVT . I`m interested to see you use PhotoImpact 8.
I`ve used PhotoImpact 12 for the last 4 years and I reckon it is all I need for jpegs.
for RAW work I use Rawtherapee or sometimes Silkypix version 3 (the free edition)

Richard

[UnknownVT]

UnknownVT . I`m interested to see you use PhotoImpact 8.
I`ve used PhotoImpact 12 for the last 4 years and I reckon it is all I need for jpegs.
for RAW work I use Rawtherapee or sometimes Silkypix version 3 (the free edition)
Richard

Hi Richard -
I had used Ulead PhotoImpact 5 previously, it cost me all of $5.99 for the CD copy
I now use PI8 - it came free with Personal Computer World (Dec/2004 issue - UK mag)
not just because they were cheap (OK it was, partly )
but because I liked the way PhotoImpact does things by visual comparison -
I really much prefer this way of working.

I had Adobe PS Elements 1 - then 2, and now PSE7 on my PC -
although I do use it occasionally -
but mainly for access to ACR and comparison in processing results to PI8.

For RAW I am a firm believer in conversion with PDCU -
as it understands the images from Pentax dSLRs better than any other RAW processor I know -
but for the finishing adjustment I would still use PI8.

[Toma]

Hi,
Regarding your problem to shoot in artificial light with pentax K20D, I have a few sugesstions based on my amateur photographer experience:

1 Set manualy the White Balance, eighter by selecting the Kelvin values eighter by selecting Custom WB when you must take a shoot and then to chose which color shoud be white in that shoot(see the White Balance chapter in the user manual)
2 Set the contrast to middle or lower values
3 Set saturation to middle or lower(many times I set it to minimum)
4 Choose a higher iso settings ( I choose maximum 800 because over that value some times i don't like the results, I said some times because I had some ISO2000 pictures that look great without NR in post procesing)
5 For kids find a minimum shutter speed where your kids are not appear moved in the frame this result to shoot in Shutter priority mode or shutter and aperture priority mode.
And in the end from my point of view the pentak K20D is like a woman, in order to get the best(which is impressive and better than a Nikon D90 best) you must work hard to find the right approach in order to give you the best and when you will find that right approach/settings in the case of the camera, you will never wish to give this camera away.
This camera is not for Automatic WB, for this camera the beast stays in manual settings.
Hope to be helpfull for you.