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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-26-2011, 07:37 PM
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One thing I find very useful is that the 55-300 is F4 until about 105mm and can reliably used wide open, making it a useful portrait lens.
I find it a great value.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
02-18-2013, 05:59 PM
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Ernie is my GFs big German shepherd / lab mix. Lily is a tiny little beagle / basset of a friend of mine. They are both very sweet dogs, and Lily is only suspicious of Ernie, because he is a first-rate butt sniffer. :lol
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Forum: Photo Critique
06-14-2012, 07:26 AM
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Even though HDR will get you the necessary detail, your white balance is different in different parts of the room. You'd be well served to use off-camera flash to light dark areas and gel them to get a more consistent white balance.
I'd also be more mindful of the edges of the frame -
#1 half a picture frame on the left
#2 has part of a hutch, part of a chair, some white thing on the left, and a chair in the upper right corner.
#4 part of a window frame.
I assume you are using a tripod to get all these consecutive exposures - plenty of opportunity to clear the edges of the shot.
Regarding distortion -
particularly in #2 and #4, if you're going to leave the hutch and window frame, at least correct the distortion in post so they are vertical
the pool shot is quite distorted, with the umbrellas and house all tipping in to the center. That is easily corrected in PS, no reason not to.
Here's the pool shot with distortion corrected and WB set off the white trim on the house. I suspect you'll find, as I did, that the 10-20 isn't very useful at 10mm for architecture. You're better off shooting at 12mm, which is about the equivalent field of view once you correct the distortion at 10mm.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-14-2011, 07:25 AM
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I would hope that the gap between the K-r and K-5 is large enough to slot another model in there.
T2i / 60D / 7D
D3100 / D7000 / D300s
K-r / GAP / K-5
I think Pentax could do well to bring weather sealing to that midrange segment.
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Forum: Photo Critique
04-13-2012, 10:27 AM
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The first one is quite a nice capture - I'd consider a crop that moves the main stem to the right of center, and leaves open space up and left of the open blossom.
The second suffers from perhaps too much depth of field, which has left a distracting background. Also, the bright out-of-focus blossom behind the butterfly is fighting for attention - if you were able to go back in time and move the camera 6" to the right to put the butterfly in front of contrasting green foliage, you'd be better off.
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Forum: Photo Critique
03-16-2012, 06:30 PM
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I like it! There is some funky magenta in some of the white hair, looks like purple fringing to me as the white balance seems otherwise correct - I'd layer that off and desaturate to remove the distracting color.
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Forum: Photo Critique
03-05-2012, 09:37 AM
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For lack of a better way to explain myself, I made a quick crop and edit.
rather than removing it entirely, I think the cloud can be employed as a framing element - along with the foreground hills - to really bring out the sun, the upper meadows, and the bright spots on the hills. This would be easier with a larger file and/or RAW data, but I believe the below demonstrates the idea.
I also lightened the cloud slightly using a layer and curves adjustment, and made a levels adjustment to darken the sun. I then used the spot healing brush on the bird. I very rarely clone anything out, but that bird bothered me for some reason.
I think I can see the edges of the gradient layer you used to lighten the foreground - you may have some fun taking all of our responses into account and having another go at it. I tend to process images like this three or four different ways until I see what I want.
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
01-19-2012, 01:40 PM
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Canoe at sunrise, Grand Marais, MN.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
12-18-2010, 02:09 PM
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You missed one possible reason to shoot RAW, one which most certainly applies to me:
I SUCK. I blow exposures all the time. I forget what I have WB set to. I switch modes and don't realize I had different ISO settings. Pretty much a disaster behind a camera.
Why should I be relegated to my screwed-up JPG output when I have the opportunity to try to salvage it by changing settings in the RAW file? I'm trying to get better, trying to remember just WTF it is that I'm doing out there, but I don't always get it right.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
12-21-2010, 05:44 PM
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One good trick for shooting close-ups with the kit lens is to set it the camera to manual focus and ensure the custom function for 'catch in-focus' is set to yes.
If you then zoom to 55mm and manual focus at the nearest setting, you can move toward your subject until you get the 'beep' that focus has been achieved. That is as close as you can get!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-10-2011, 04:15 PM
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In my experience the only way to decide is to take all of your crap to a real, actual store, and see what fits. And for gods sake, buy from them. don't leave and order online.
A good camera shop will be happy to help you in your quest.
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Forum: Photo Critique
01-14-2011, 05:02 PM
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I used photoshop elements 8. I used the Brighten/Contrast tool +25 brightness, adjusted the curves a little bit, and then ran some of the built in noise reduction.
I didn't do any sharpening. Increasing contrast makes in image look sharper, as it makes the darks darker, the brights brighter, and the corresponding transitions appear sharper.
It could have been a lot cleaner with a larger file, or the RAW file. Do you have any editing software available to you?
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
01-07-2011, 10:10 AM
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This thread got a little goofy. Lets get back to the matter at hand - the kit lens, the setup, and your expectations.
situation: handheld, outdoors, cloudy? fairly flat light
DA L 18-55 II at 40mm (per the exif) and F5.0.
K-x: at its lowest sensitivity and 1/200
Yes, you are expecting too much in terms of sharpness and contrast from the kit lens at 40mm and F5.0 (nearly wide open).
Your expectations would have been met by stopping down to F8 and 1/50th at ISO 200, easily handheld at 40mm with or without SR turned on.
It appears you've read a number of reviews of the kit lens since you referred a 'photozone sweet spot of F5.6-F8'. That being said, unsure why you expected more from this scene at F5.0 and 40mm.
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Forum: Photo Critique
01-06-2011, 12:43 PM
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Certainly #2 and #6 capture fantastic facial expressions.
#3 and #5 are some what odd moments in time but I didn't respond to them as much.
Regarding the exposure and the b&w conversions, the high-contrast look that is so often associated with 'street' photography has blown some highlights, particularly in #6 where we have this blob of hair and shirt behind the woman. Hard to say without seeing the original, but retaining some detail there may have been useful.
Either way I had to revisit the series twice and pick at nits to come up with anything resembling constructive input. Very well done!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
12-23-2010, 10:32 AM
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This is absolutely true, yet no one really cares. The OP clearly has these lenses already and is wondering about their effective FOV on a DSLR. I see these verbose explanations of crop factor all the time and they drive me nuts.
People just want to know if they stand on one end of a room with four people standing against the other wall, will they fit in the frame? They did with the 30mm lens on film. They won't on a pentax DLSR. End of story.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-15-2010, 03:11 PM
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Before you go shopping, put the 55-300 on the KX and set it for a given focal length (55, 70, 85, 100). Shoot. See what focal length you tend to use, and which you feel are limiting.
The 55-300 isn't really a 'portrait' lens, but I find that results are quite decent even wide open, and you can shoot at F4 thru right about 100mm.
I used this method when I acquired my 10-20, by noting that I almost always shot my 18-55 at 18, or 55. Now I just leave it at home. :D
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