Pentax K1 over-expose highlights?

nunzio · 12-06-2016, 01:52 PM

From about three months I am using the Pentax k1 and I'm very satisfied, but by using it,
I realize that it tends to overexpose highlights, despite being set, in the camera, correction for this function.
I would like the opinion of someone who is using it and if he has my same impression.
Greetings.

**lithedreamer** · 12-06-2016, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by nunzio

From about three months I am using the Pentax k1 and I'm very satisfied, but by using it,
I realize that it tends to overexpose highlights, despite being set, in the camera, correction for this function.
I would like the opinion of someone who is using it and if he has my same impression.
Greetings.

I haven't noticed anything, do you have any examples? Do you shoot in raw or JPEG?

**cdurfor** · 12-06-2016, 02:02 PM

I was shooting side by side this weekend (for two different fireworks events) with a K-1 and a K-3. I was surprised that my K1 tended to over expose more frequently then the K3 even though the same exposure, aperture and shutter speed settings were used.. I still haven't ruled out settings differences, but it is worth further evaluation.

nunzio · 12-06-2016, 02:15 PM

I work mostly in raw, but I verified this thing also working in jpeg.
With the setting in M, photographing a landscape, for example, the sky always appears very bright, over-exposed and difficult to fix in PP, while the rest of the image is perfect.
Also in the picture, areas of the face illuminated by the sun appear almost burned, and you can not distinguish the traits.
Obviously I take care of the exposure in shooting over most of the image, including the sky or parts of the face most illuminated.

**lithedreamer** · 12-06-2016, 02:24 PM

Originally posted by nunzio

I work mostly in raw, but I verified this thing also working in jpeg.
With the setting in M, photographing a landscape, for example, the sky always appears very bright, over-exposed and difficult to fix in PP, while the rest of the image is perfect.
Also in the picture, areas of the face illuminated by the sun appear almost burned, and you can not distinguish the traits.
Obviously I take care of the exposure in shooting over most of the image, including the sky or parts of the face most illuminated.

Weird. My K-30's meter consistently underexposed images (by a very small, correctable amount), but my K-1's meter is always exactly spot-on.

nunzio · 12-06-2016, 02:26 PM

I work mostly in raw, but I verified this thing also working in jpeg.
With the setting in M, photographing a landscape, for example, the sky always appears very bright, over-exposed and difficult to fix in PP, while the rest of the image is perfect.
Also in the picture, areas of the face illuminated by the sun appear almost burned, and you can not distinguish the traits.
Obviously I take care of the exposure in shooting over most of the image, including the sky or parts of the face most illuminated.

victormeldrew · 12-06-2016, 02:49 PM

Which metering mode are you using?

nunzio · 12-06-2016, 03:01 PM

I think there is little balance between light and dark.
Even in your photo, the sky over the sea has a part over-exposed, at right, which does not stand out at all; only light.

**UncleVanya** · 12-06-2016, 03:10 PM

Can you dial in a slight negative exposure compensation and push up the shadows later? A lot of your examples seemed high dynamic range and likely that there just is only so much range. You could also add graduated ND filters to the mix.

**clackers** · 12-06-2016, 04:12 PM

Hi Nunzio,

Take charge - shoot in RAW and manually expose. It's why we own DSLRs not phones, right?

If you want to preserve highlights, expose for them.

Of course you will underexpose the rest of the image, and that was what the camera was trying to resist, but you have the idea of what kind of shot you want.

Your K-1 has superb dynamic range - it beats the Sony A7R II and is a full eV better than the newest Canon 5D Mk IV.

**unkipunki** · 12-06-2016, 04:14 PM

The camera doesn't expose for the whole frame. So the key question is is the area the camera was asked to expose for correctly exposed? Also with the DR of the camera exposing to keep the highlights in the histogram contained and dealing with shadows in post is the best approach. I often spot focus on highlighted areas with +1 EV then use AE lock. Then recompose and shoot. Alternatively just dial in -1 EV and shoot as UncleVanya suggests. That is unless the scene is clearly totally within the histogram anyway. Just my thoughts as this is a necessity for my K3 and 645Z in high DR scenarios and not unusual for all modern DSLRs.

**southlander** · 12-06-2016, 09:20 PM

Yes, I echo the question of which metering mode is being used by the OP?

nunzio · 12-07-2016, 01:57 PM

Ok guys, I have a clear idea what you are saying, it is part of the rules of photography, but what I wanted to emphasize was the ease with which it is possible to over-expose. It seems to me that the same consideration can not be done against the low lights, towards which the K1 has more balance.

---------- Post added 12-07-2016 at 10:03 PM ----------

For example, I do not love treat pictures pp, unless it be correct obvious mistakes, so I am convinced that the camera has to give the possibility to generate a photograph without needing to correct it.

**unkipunki** · 12-07-2016, 03:43 PM

Originally posted by nunzio

Ok guys, I have a clear idea what you are saying, it is part of the rules of photography, but what I wanted to emphasize was the ease with which it is possible to over-expose. It seems to me that the same consideration can not be done against the low lights, towards which the K1 has more balance.

---------- Post added 12-07-2016 at 10:03 PM ----------

For example, I do not love treat pictures pp, unless it be correct obvious mistakes, so I am convinced that the camera has to give the possibility to generate a photograph without needing to correct it.

I do not own a K1 but feel sure it is possible to take certain photographs without resorting to PP. But high dynamic range photos such as your street scene would present a real challenge. I do not know what that scene looked like in reality in terms of lighting, nor what detail was in the sky at the time. But if you want to compose such a shot with the stairway taking up almost all of the potential metering area you will certainly have to adjust in some way to ensure the sky doesn't blow out. Personally I'd meter the sky to ensure this and AE lock then recompose. But as metering the bright area pulls the shadows down I would dial in a positive EV value to lift the sky back up from the centre spot metering but not so far as to blow it out again. This may produce a straight out of camera image that is satisfactory. But I feel it doesn't it is a raw file with all the info available in PP.

**clackers** · 12-07-2016, 03:56 PM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by nunzio

[/COLOR]For example, I do not love treat pictures pp, unless it be correct obvious mistakes, so I am convinced that the camera has to give the possibility to generate a photograph without needing to correct it.

Impossible, Nunzio, unless you shoot a scene where everything in it ... foreground, subject and background ... is 18 percent grey.

That is the industry standard, and you (RAW) or the camera (JPG) will need to postprocess anything else.

Why leave anything you care about to a camera?

12-06-2016, 01:52 PM	#1
nunzio Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: La Spezia / Italy Photos: Albums Posts: 107	Pentax K1 over-expose highlights? From about three months I am using the Pentax k1 and I'm very satisfied, but by using it, I realize that it tends to overexpose highlights, despite being set, in the camera, correction for this function. I would like the opinion of someone who is using it and if he has my same impression. Greetings.

12-06-2016, 03:01 PM	#8
nunzio Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: La Spezia / Italy Photos: Albums Posts: 107 Original Poster	I think there is little balance between light and dark. Even in your photo, the sky over the sea has a part over-exposed, at right, which does not stand out at all; only light. Attached Images

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12-06-2016, 01:58 PM	#2
lithedreamer Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2013 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,799	Originally posted by nunzio From about three months I am using the Pentax k1 and I'm very satisfied, but by using it, I realize that it tends to overexpose highlights, despite being set, in the camera, correction for this function. I would like the opinion of someone who is using it and if he has my same impression. Greetings. I haven't noticed anything, do you have any examples? Do you shoot in raw or JPEG?

12-06-2016, 02:02 PM	#3
cdurfor Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Washington, DC Photos: Gallery Posts: 581	I was shooting side by side this weekend (for two different fireworks events) with a K-1 and a K-3. I was surprised that my K1 tended to over expose more frequently then the K3 even though the same exposure, aperture and shutter speed settings were used.. I still haven't ruled out settings differences, but it is worth further evaluation.

12-06-2016, 02:15 PM	#4
nunzio Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: La Spezia / Italy Photos: Albums Posts: 107 Original Poster	I work mostly in raw, but I verified this thing also working in jpeg. With the setting in M, photographing a landscape, for example, the sky always appears very bright, over-exposed and difficult to fix in PP, while the rest of the image is perfect. Also in the picture, areas of the face illuminated by the sun appear almost burned, and you can not distinguish the traits. Obviously I take care of the exposure in shooting over most of the image, including the sky or parts of the face most illuminated.

12-06-2016, 02:24 PM	#5
lithedreamer Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2013 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,799	Originally posted by nunzio I work mostly in raw, but I verified this thing also working in jpeg. With the setting in M, photographing a landscape, for example, the sky always appears very bright, over-exposed and difficult to fix in PP, while the rest of the image is perfect. Also in the picture, areas of the face illuminated by the sun appear almost burned, and you can not distinguish the traits. Obviously I take care of the exposure in shooting over most of the image, including the sky or parts of the face most illuminated. Weird. My K-30's meter consistently underexposed images (by a very small, correctable amount), but my K-1's meter is always exactly spot-on.

12-06-2016, 02:26 PM	#6
nunzio Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: La Spezia / Italy Photos: Albums Posts: 107 Original Poster	I work mostly in raw, but I verified this thing also working in jpeg. With the setting in M, photographing a landscape, for example, the sky always appears very bright, over-exposed and difficult to fix in PP, while the rest of the image is perfect. Also in the picture, areas of the face illuminated by the sun appear almost burned, and you can not distinguish the traits. Obviously I take care of the exposure in shooting over most of the image, including the sky or parts of the face most illuminated.

12-06-2016, 02:49 PM	#7
victormeldrew Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: South West UK Photos: Albums Posts: 1,493	Which metering mode are you using?

12-06-2016, 03:10 PM	#9
UncleVanya Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jul 2014 Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 28,397	Can you dial in a slight negative exposure compensation and push up the shadows later? A lot of your examples seemed high dynamic range and likely that there just is only so much range. You could also add graduated ND filters to the mix.

12-06-2016, 04:12 PM	#10
clackers Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Melbourne Photos: Albums Posts: 16,397	Hi Nunzio, Take charge - shoot in RAW and manually expose. It's why we own DSLRs not phones, right? If you want to preserve highlights, expose for them. Of course you will underexpose the rest of the image, and that was what the camera was trying to resist, but you have the idea of what kind of shot you want. Your K-1 has superb dynamic range - it beats the Sony A7R II and is a full eV better than the newest Canon 5D Mk IV.

12-06-2016, 04:14 PM	#11
unkipunki Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: South Lochaweside, Argyll Photos: Gallery Posts: 615	The camera doesn't expose for the whole frame. So the key question is is the area the camera was asked to expose for correctly exposed? Also with the DR of the camera exposing to keep the highlights in the histogram contained and dealing with shadows in post is the best approach. I often spot focus on highlighted areas with +1 EV then use AE lock. Then recompose and shoot. Alternatively just dial in -1 EV and shoot as UncleVanya suggests. That is unless the scene is clearly totally within the histogram anyway. Just my thoughts as this is a necessity for my K3 and 645Z in high DR scenarios and not unusual for all modern DSLRs.

12-06-2016, 09:20 PM	#12
southlander Site Supporter Join Date: May 2012 Location: Adelaide Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 1,364	Yes, I echo the question of which metering mode is being used by the OP?

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12-07-2016, 01:57 PM	#13
nunzio Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: La Spezia / Italy Photos: Albums Posts: 107 Original Poster	Ok guys, I have a clear idea what you are saying, it is part of the rules of photography, but what I wanted to emphasize was the ease with which it is possible to over-expose. It seems to me that the same consideration can not be done against the low lights, towards which the K1 has more balance. ---------- Post added 12-07-2016 at 10:03 PM ---------- For example, I do not love treat pictures pp, unless it be correct obvious mistakes, so I am convinced that the camera has to give the possibility to generate a photograph without needing to correct it.

12-07-2016, 03:43 PM	#14
unkipunki Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: South Lochaweside, Argyll Photos: Gallery Posts: 615	Originally posted by nunzio Ok guys, I have a clear idea what you are saying, it is part of the rules of photography, but what I wanted to emphasize was the ease with which it is possible to over-expose. It seems to me that the same consideration can not be done against the low lights, towards which the K1 has more balance. ---------- Post added 12-07-2016 at 10:03 PM ---------- For example, I do not love treat pictures pp, unless it be correct obvious mistakes, so I am convinced that the camera has to give the possibility to generate a photograph without needing to correct it. I do not own a K1 but feel sure it is possible to take certain photographs without resorting to PP. But high dynamic range photos such as your street scene would present a real challenge. I do not know what that scene looked like in reality in terms of lighting, nor what detail was in the sky at the time. But if you want to compose such a shot with the stairway taking up almost all of the potential metering area you will certainly have to adjust in some way to ensure the sky doesn't blow out. Personally I'd meter the sky to ensure this and AE lock then recompose. But as metering the bright area pulls the shadows down I would dial in a positive EV value to lift the sky back up from the centre spot metering but not so far as to blow it out again. This may produce a straight out of camera image that is satisfactory. But I feel it doesn't it is a raw file with all the info available in PP.

12-07-2016, 03:56 PM - 1 Like	#15
clackers Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Melbourne Photos: Albums Posts: 16,397	Originally posted by nunzio [/COLOR]For example, I do not love treat pictures pp, unless it be correct obvious mistakes, so I am convinced that the camera has to give the possibility to generate a photograph without needing to correct it. Impossible, Nunzio, unless you shoot a scene where everything in it ... foreground, subject and background ... is 18 percent grey. That is the industry standard, and you (RAW) or the camera (JPG) will need to postprocess anything else. Why leave anything you care about to a camera?