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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
05-01-2019, 02:45 PM
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Thanks much for the reply’s, particularly Milesbikes!
This whole photography thing is proving to be quite entertaining, challenging and most of all, fun! At a month shy of 70 I guess I’m a late bloomer. I blame it all on my dad, an aerospace engineer/amateur photographer. Just not a good mix. Long story short, endless shot composition plus aperture/focus refinements for a family of 6 vacation/holiday/scenic shots. My sisters often broke out in tears. I just got mad 😡 and said I’ll never put MY family through this!
All that is behind me now, I have grandkids to torture!
I am shooting RAW+, upon the advice of folks on this forum. Still in the process of tweaking settings on the K70, aiming for my style, whatever that may be.
This pic of one of my granddaughters is cropped from a much larger image and processed in Luminar3. I’m just amazed at what one can accomplish with a good camera and post processing software.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-30-2019, 03:20 PM
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Overcast day here, light drizzle most of the day.
Just picked up the very inexpensive Pentax DA 50mm 1.8 to begin my “glass” collection. Only other lens atm is the kit 18-135.
Educating myself on DoF, the rose came out kinda nice, I didn’t even see the water drops when I took the pic. Original image RAW, pp with Luminar3, Luminar “Look” Super Sharp 100%
Just thought I’d share, comments appreciated.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-24-2019, 10:54 AM
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Thanks for this bit. Been reading about P mode, will try some shots today.
---------- Post added 04-24-19 at 11:15 AM ----------
Thanks to all for suggestions re RAW processors, file handling in general.
It became obvious early on that a dedicated drive would be best for my photos. Lots of alternatives out there, decided to go with a 2TB WD Passport. For now, backed up to the Cloud. I’ll eventually pick up a FireWire as a prime drive with the WD as backup.
All the RAW develop/edit options, with the exception of Adobe’s offerings, are pretty new. So, lots of room for growth. I decided on Luminar3 for my desktop. The Mac version appears superior to the Windows version atm, I’ll try both since the license allows as many as 5 installs and my desktop is dual boot Mac/Win. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have Affinity Photo on my iPad Pro. It’s already come in handy when I was away from my desktop.
I also picked up a spare battery and a remote clicker. Just need a tripod.
Infrastructure in place, it’s time to take some pics!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-21-2019, 02:53 PM
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Luminar3, nice, another alternative. I’ll check it out
I took a few shots today using SCN mode, landscape. As s baseline to see what the camera thought was best.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-21-2019, 10:21 AM
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Again, thanks! I’m really liking this forum.
In answer, I right away banned myself from using AUTO.
My initial focus, pun intended, has been depth of field. When not engaged in dof experiments I’ve been working in P mode. My intent is to gain at least an understanding of each mode then move on to the next. Subject to review of course.
I’ve also elected to use Raw+ for the time being.
I like this pic of a ladybug, it’s in focus. No effort at composition, just playing with dof.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-21-2019, 08:21 AM
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Corel AfterShot Pro looks interesting. Especially with the Earthday price break of only $48 US.
Plus offering a native Linux option. No iPad app so far though.
The Lightroom iPad version is crippled unless upgraded to the subscription. Which I’ll probably do for a month or two, just for comparisons sake.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-20-2019, 01:16 PM
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Valid points re subscription. I do not think I would use it enough to justify the cost.
As for finding my pictures in 10 years...I may well be dead by then since I’m 70 now. Haha 😂.
I didn’t realize LR was an iPad app ‘til you gentlemen posted. So I’ve learned something new.
Just installed the app, start fiddling.
With respect to RAW, I’ll put up with the curve. It just doesn’t make sense to me personally to intentionally downgrade the quality of photos by storing them in a compressed format.
Thanks for the comments!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
04-20-2019, 11:11 AM
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First, thanks to all who responded to my first few posts, much appreciated/needed advice. Based on said advice I’m first going to learn to use what I have, K70 w/18-135 kit lens. Eventually pick up a used manual focus 50mm, f1.4.
Now that I’ve educated myself a bit more I believe I’ll shoot 100% RAW. A 64 gig card will accommodate a lot of RAW images. I just ordered two from
PNY Elite Performance 64GB Flash Memory High Speed SDXC Class 10 UHS-I (P-SDX64U395-GE) amazon.com: PNY Elite Performance 64GB Flash Memory High Speed SDXC Class 10 UHS-I (P-SDX64U395-GE): Computers & Accessories?tag=pentaxforums-20&
I’ll need something to process those RAW files, Photoshop? I’m sure all you pros know all about PS, I don’t. I had an idea it was expensive but now I see they’ve switched it up to a subscription service, Ugh 😑. Simply not palatable to me, a novice photographer. So, Google being a close, personal friend, I asked for some advice.
Google suggested several alternatives.
Since I have an iPad Pro I decided to test drive Affinity Photo. Figured if I liked it well enough on the iPad I’d go for the very reasonably priced win10/MacOS version if I needed more horsepower.
So, I’ve been dabbling with Affinity Photo, WOW, what you can do with a photo! Again, I’m sure no surprise to all you pros/prosumers but an eye opener to this noob.
So, now I have dual learning curves to ascend, better get back to work.
Any comments, advice re Affinity appreciated.
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
04-19-2019, 01:22 PM
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Yes, mine came with a hood. Thanks for your tips.
Griff
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Forum: Sold Items
04-17-2019, 08:12 AM
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
04-15-2019, 07:39 AM
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Here is a recommendation (1 of 4) join this forum with a donation
Done!
Thanks for the links.
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
04-15-2019, 07:28 AM
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Nice summation Papa-Joe. Parallels my conclusions precisely. As a result of all the responses I’ve decided to:
Start shooting! Amazon man/lady where are you??
Then:
1. Pick up a good quality UV filter, for lens protection reasons since I tend to use my toys hard
2. Order a spare battery, probably a Watson from B&H, they seem popular here
3. Already ordered/received 2 each PNY 64 gig cards, they are so inexpensive now!
4. Research bag options, the smaller the better
5. Research tripod options for in shop photography of cabinetry projects, CNC and 3D print time lapse.
6. Research flash options, used.
7. Continue to peruse these forums
Thanks all!
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
04-14-2019, 05:30 PM
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Ummmm, I’m overwhelmed. Thanks so much to everyone for the opinions/advice!
I can’t wait to ask my next noob question!
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Forum: Pentax K-70 & KF
04-14-2019, 09:39 AM
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Noob photographer, hoping to up his game from iPhone world.
My K70 18-135 arrives tomorrow. Since I’ve blown my budget I can only afford some minor accessories at present. From what I’ve read to date, filters can come in handy. To start, most of my work will be outside scenes, full to partial sunlight. Maybe some dawn/dusk attempts as well.
Could someone recommend a basic starter set for me? I’d guess a UV filter to start, what else?
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
04-13-2019, 05:10 PM
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I see now, this is quite the international forum. Cool.
If I knew how to edit my post I’d refine the title to “US Left Coast, south”. I try not to be “that guy”.
Great forum btw, thanks for the responses, learned a lot already.
What’s a smallish rugged carry bag for the K70 and maybe one extra lens? A lot out there, curious what the folks here might recommend.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
04-13-2019, 02:34 PM
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Done! Thanks for the recommendation.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
04-13-2019, 08:58 AM
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Decided today I need another hobby so I pulled the trigger on a K70 18-135 from Amazon.
Don’t know squat about “serious” photography but am looking forward to learning. My research tells me the K70 is a pretty serious camera that I’m not likely to outgrow anytime soon. My last SLR was a Ricoh Mirai, 1988 vintage.
Ok, off to the forums. Need to revisit F stops and ISO.
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