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12-27-2014, 06:27 PM   #16
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When I was in middle school I attended a photography course, and someone back then put it into my head that you could not swap lenses while film was in the camera, so I never did. Start off shooting a 50mm? Thats what I had for the duration of the roll. A zoom? I was zooming la vida loca for a full 24 shots.

Fast forward about 30 years, and I came to find out otherwise. I felt like an idiot.

12-27-2014, 06:29 PM   #17
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"Purist" is an excuse? No, not really. For the record I had some pretty intensive training from two different teachers. I went through several years of internship with them. I doubt I have missed much in terms of my photographic education. About the only thing they didn't get to do was have me develop my own film and that was MY fault because I had to move just as they were setting me up with a list and some basic darkroom stuff. The way they both taught me though there was a major emphasis on creation and the basics over the new tech. They eventually taught me a lot of tech too but they both wanted me to get the basic stuff down pat.

Aperture, iso, shutter speed, lighting, line, color, composition, thinking creatively and out of the box, all that was far more important to them than what camera I was going to be using. In fact they insisted I not concentrate so much on that, that I cross train and learn to use a lot of different cameras and brands. They're both very old school style photographers, men who have been in the business as pros for a very long time who came out of film and who consider digital just a new extension of that. I actually learned on a film SLR and not an advanced one but a vintage one with the simplest controls possible because that's what they wanted me to learn first. I didn't get a first DSLR until I was almost done with their tutorials. Some of the new bells and whistles, I've just never bothered much with them because I didn't want to rely on that. I wanted to set it all myself, every time and have complete control over things, not let my camera decide anything for me.

I can pick up almost any camera digital or film load it and use it almost immediately to take pics. But some of the more advanced and newer functions on DSLR's I don't really use them so I tend to forget sometimes what they are even for. You can learn things all you want but if you don't use what you have learned all the time you do tend to forget. Video, for instance. I just don't care. I know I will never use it so I don't bother to really learn it in depth. I do read the manual for every camera I own, several times, but as much as I do, I must admit that in actual practice I'll find something and go "OH, right, darn I forgot that! Okay, that's what that's for!"

It does vary from camera to camera too, even in the same brand. Every Pentax camera I've ever worked with has had some common elements just by virtue of being a Pentax, but each one is just a little bit different, too, has it's particular quirks that I have to make myself acquainted with. But I'm not lazy about doing the homework. Far from it. I tend to read the literature a lot more than most people I meet bother to do actually. I've read the K5 manual before but not the K5II one. I'm about in the middle of it now and it's been quite interesting learning some new stuff I didn't know before. The K5II it's definitely a bit different from most of the cameras I've owned so far.

Last edited by magkelly; 12-27-2014 at 06:37 PM.
12-27-2014, 06:35 PM   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by Flugelbinder Quote
One question, I have looked for a way, but it seems there isn't the option to change the wheel config? I mean, setting the back wheel to shutter speed and the front to aperture? Sorry, but this is what I was used to...
As Nicholas06 mentions, that's what the E-dial programming is used for. The shutter and aperture dials can be reversed when using P mode and Manual mode. The other modes have different selectable set ups.

Last edited by Oldbayrunner; 12-27-2014 at 06:40 PM.
12-27-2014, 08:08 PM   #19
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QuoteOriginally posted by magkelly Quote
I'm supposed to be a smart girl with a high IQ, blazing reading/stunning language ability and all, Ms Pro Photographer, and yet it is so obvious that I can be SO DARNED DUMB sometimes. I have been shooting with a K-30 since JULY of this year, a camera that has 2 wheels. I have previously shot with a K-7, a K-x, and *ist. Do you know that I have only just NOW figured out the true usefulness of the freakin front wheel?

I've been shooting, even for work using mainly the menus, control keys and the back wheel since I got my K-30's seriously. I'm so used to doing that it just seemed kind of redundant to me that the camera even had a 2nd wheel in front. Thought it was more of a convenience thing that not, kind of like the User Program Your Own Settings thing, something else I've never bothered to use. I'm playing with the K5II I suddenly realize that with the second dial and the iso button that I don't have to set the iso in the camera menu every time I need to change it. I can do it on the fly and still change aperture and shutter speed using both dials at the same time.

Well DUH, braniac, so that's why they put TWO wheels on the thing...

Apparently I'm a little slower than I thought....LOL

Okay, fess up what feature on your own cameras did you not really notice/get and hardly ever use until one day you just found yourself doing it and it was "Eureka! I've found it!" I'd like to know because maybe I'm missing doing that too? I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this one because I've actually read the manuals for my cameras several times over, used my cameras pretty extensively, for work, and still I just did not really get the usefulness of the second wheel at all till just now. I was so used to working with less, that I just didn't get "more" and that's SAD when you think about how long I was doing it....

(MK hangs head in shame...)
no need to feel ashamed. I also had a a few eureka moments and the customizable dials were right top on the list also.
I have 5 Pentax bodies and the menus are slightly different on all of them so it is an adjustment everytime I use a different body. I have to shift into different gears but it keeps my brain working....
My GR is probably the most customizable and redundant with controls...there are just so many options on it and ways to access controls. I am still learning how to use it.

12-28-2014, 02:18 AM   #20
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Much to learn from this thread...
I wouldn't call that "being stupid" in the least... our brain just likes to simplify, and that's what allows us to understand things at a glance and add layers of abstraction.
Life would be a painful crawl without that skill... even though sometimes it pays off to slow down and think things a little bit deeper, make them second nature, and then get back up at cruise speed!
...and I'm no exception!
12-28-2014, 03:29 AM   #21
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QuoteOriginally posted by magkelly Quote
"Purist" is an excuse? No, not really. For the record I had some pretty intensive training from two different teachers. I went through several years of internship with them. I doubt I have missed much in terms of my photographic education. About the only thing they didn't get to do was have me develop my own film and that was MY fault because I had to move just as they were setting me up with a list and some basic darkroom stuff. The way they both taught me though there was a major emphasis on creation and the basics over the new tech. They eventually taught me a lot of tech too but they both wanted me to get the basic stuff down pat.

Aperture, iso, shutter speed, lighting, line, color, composition, thinking creatively and out of the box, all that was far more important to them than what camera I was going to be using. In fact they insisted I not concentrate so much on that, that I cross train and learn to use a lot of different cameras and brands. They're both very old school style photographers, men who have been in the business as pros for a very long time who came out of film and who consider digital just a new extension of that. I actually learned on a film SLR and not an advanced one but a vintage one with the simplest controls possible because that's what they wanted me to learn first. I didn't get a first DSLR until I was almost done with their tutorials. Some of the new bells and whistles, I've just never bothered much with them because I didn't want to rely on that. I wanted to set it all myself, every time and have complete control over things, not let my camera decide anything for me.

I can pick up almost any camera digital or film load it and use it almost immediately to take pics. But some of the more advanced and newer functions on DSLR's I don't really use them so I tend to forget sometimes what they are even for. You can learn things all you want but if you don't use what you have learned all the time you do tend to forget. Video, for instance. I just don't care. I know I will never use it so I don't bother to really learn it in depth. I do read the manual for every camera I own, several times, but as much as I do, I must admit that in actual practice I'll find something and go "OH, right, darn I forgot that! Okay, that's what that's for!"

It does vary from camera to camera too, even in the same brand. Every Pentax camera I've ever worked with has had some common elements just by virtue of being a Pentax, but each one is just a little bit different, too, has it's particular quirks that I have to make myself acquainted with. But I'm not lazy about doing the homework. Far from it. I tend to read the literature a lot more than most people I meet bother to do actually. I've read the K5 manual before but not the K5II one. I'm about in the middle of it now and it's been quite interesting learning some new stuff I didn't know before. The K5II it's definitely a bit different from most of the cameras I've owned so far.
Didn't want to say you did anything bad or your learnt bad... I just said that there also likely something to learn from the programatic modes
12-28-2014, 04:47 PM   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by Nicolas06 Quote
I just said that there also likely something to learn from the programatic modes
I was taking pictures of fireworks with my friend. I borrowed tripod and IR remote to release the shutter. I told everything how I take those pictures and so on. He asked then what about this fireworks mode and I was like I have no idea, try it.

The results were something which looks good on web but weren't crisp like my pictures. Anyway I don't know how to take that kind of pictures where sky is really black and colors are colorful.

So programatic modes can give interesting results. You have to just try and learn.

12-28-2014, 10:49 PM   #23
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Not to worry, MagK -- I'm still reachin' for that pesky film rewind knob when I want to change ASA or color temp in mid-roll.

An' I'm about out of blue flashbulbs too.
12-29-2014, 12:58 AM   #24
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QuoteOriginally posted by anemone Quote
I was taking pictures of fireworks with my friend. I borrowed tripod and IR remote to release the shutter. I told everything how I take those pictures and so on. He asked then what about this fireworks mode and I was like I have no idea, try it.

The results were something which looks good on web but weren't crisp like my pictures. Anyway I don't know how to take that kind of pictures where sky is really black and colors are colorful.

So programatic modes can give interesting results. You have to just try and learn.
We speak of A, Tv, TAv or P mode here not "fireworks" or "landscape"
12-29-2014, 01:04 AM   #25
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QuoteOriginally posted by Nicolas06 Quote
We speak of A, Tv, TAv or P mode here not "fireworks" or "landscape"
Um, excuse me, but some of my cameras do have that as an "official" program mode and yes, I will say so. It's a perfectly valid choice to use them, if you have got them, and honestly? That's the only way I've ever gotten decent fireworks pics. I'm totally lousy at it otherwise. I really am. :P But there is a mode, on some of my cameras that is actually labeled "fireworks" and I think it's funny as heck. Darned useful too. That mode it helped me to get my first decent ones, seriously. Photographically I hate fireworks and lightning. I have yet to truly master catching them and I've been trying for a long while. All these pics people do of them here, the pretty lovely light shows? I've never done that well, yet. Not on my own anyway...
12-29-2014, 01:31 AM   #26
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QuoteOriginally posted by magkelly Quote
Um, excuse me, but some of my cameras do have that as an "official" program mode and yes, I will say so. It's a perfectly valid choice to use them, if you have got them, and honestly? That's the only way I've ever gotten decent fireworks pics. I'm totally lousy at it otherwise. I really am. :P But there is a mode, on some of my cameras that is actually labeled "fireworks" and I think it's funny as heck. Darned useful too. That mode it helped me to get my first decent ones, seriously. Photographically I hate fireworks and lightning. I have yet to truly master catching them and I've been trying for a long while. All these pics people do of them here, the pretty lovely light shows? I've never done that well, yet. Not on my own anyway...
Fireworks? Tripod, low isos and a somewhat long exposure in the 0.5 - 2 second range. Under expose severely or the camera will try to match the sky with grey. Do a few tries. It worked for me.
12-29-2014, 07:19 AM   #27
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Fireworks the easy way. Use a tripod, M mode, F8, 0.5-1 second and ISO 200. Don't use AF, but MF . Use anything between 40-100mm lens and set distance to 10m or so. The F8 will make sure everything looks pretty sharp.
Here an example, exif available
12-29-2014, 02:33 PM   #28
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Andre-mz5 has good starting point. Your pictures look prettier when they are in right direction. Down is on the right side.

Longer exposures might get the effect better. And if there are chimneys or islands or something to get the size of the effect, it makes nicer picture. I like to use really wide lens and have ground and sky. The composing is quite tricky thing always.

This image is one of my where I should be doing something completly different but I'm taking pictures with my left hand. There is also the unseen element of smoke and fog.

While normal show might look just OK, with long exposure this might have been bad photo or something really beautiful. And this is something I had to dig from raw.

I've seen nice photos of fireworks taken with Canon dual ISO but it is totally different world and I don't know about that.

12-31-2014, 06:18 AM   #29
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It's not really a dumb thing but my recent Eureka moment came when I disabled autofocus on the shutter button and switched to only using the AF button on the back. It takes some getting used to, but separating the actions of focusing and taking the picture makes a huge difference.
01-02-2015, 08:00 AM   #30
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I refuse to buy cameras that don't have two wheels for this reason.

My brain fart happened last night, when my manual lens had the aperture set wide open and I couldn't figure out why on earth the lever wouldn't move. .. Thought it would damage my camera.

Learning is sometimes a bit of an embarrassing moment xD
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