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Forum: Pentax K-3 Photo Contest 06-02-2014, 06:16 AM  
Cityscape Lost City
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 17
Views: 1,680
A most interesting image of buildings enhanced by atmosphere. It invites close study and contemplation!
Adam Aitken
Forum: Monthly Photo Contests 03-20-2014, 08:44 PM  
Owl
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 7
Views: 1,324
Fantastic, as is usual with your photos Keitha. Adam Aitken
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 12-11-2010, 01:39 AM  
K-7 Defective Sensors?
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 16
Views: 5,767
I have a K-7 and K-10. The weakness of the K-7 is the sensor's lack of dynamic range and noise at high ISO compared to the competition. This means that if you need take a lot of shots in low light conditions, or you are a serious landscape photographer who needs high DR then it is not the best performer. But for the majority of DSLR enthusiasts the other advantages of the K-7 are worth having, and at a cheaper price than K-5. If you still have a K-20 I'd keep it, as the K-7's IQ is not really better than the K-20's. The K-7 is superior in light metering and has a faster AF than k-10.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 12-08-2010, 11:18 PM  
PPG and IQ
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 14
Views: 3,524
I absolutely agree with this and it should be encouraged in PPG. PPG is conservative and behind the times with its limitations. It won't attract younger more innovative amateurs; they have other interesting sites to post to anyway.

PPG was a good site to improve your conventional skills with focus, compositions, lovely colour, sense of a subject etc. But nowadays it's become so easy to submit a technically sufficient image, because pp software is easy to use. People vote yes without enough consideration of originality, or the concept or emotional impulse that goes into the image. I mean I want to see an image that was HARD WON in some way. The shooter put him/herself in a special place to take the shot; the shooter waited for the right light; the shooter had a special relationship with the model or human subject; the shooter spent a long time post-processing to get the most out of the original shot. Everything is too technical, as stipulated in the rules, but how often do you see a technically perfect shot of something you have seen hundreds of times before? It is a good place to learn how stock photography can be produced.
Forum: Photographic Technique 12-08-2010, 11:05 PM  
PPG standards going down?
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 145
Views: 22,265
Ash, I think your image is much more interesting than many I have seen submitted to PPG. I wonder how much weight voters give to the technical aspects anyway. Given the amount of time we spend on inspecting images these days, most people would not have noticed the softness, or the odd head at the bottom. But maybe the technical imperfections ADD something to the image. The out of focus tower suggests a viewer with a slightly enibriated patron of the amusement park. The hptogarpher is not a scientist, but a participant with a connection to the subject that is not merely technical. Why do we automatically downgrade something because it is soft or noisy? There's too much technical analysis and not enough emotional judgment going on in PPG. That's why there are so many technically excellent images which are frankly sterile in effect.
Forum: Photographic Technique 12-08-2010, 10:58 PM  
PPG standards going down?
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 145
Views: 22,265
Start your own gallery, and rigorously judge entries according to your criteria.

Have some guidelines on originality for a start. What is the point of having hundreds of photos of the same subject taken in more or less the same way?

Define technical excellence. Sharpness, noise levels, colour, use of DOF,.

X factor - does the shot have something indefinably beautiful about it?

Passion and emotion - is it moving?
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 12-07-2010, 02:26 AM  
K7 + good lens or K5 w/kit lens
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 52
Views: 12,627
I have been very happy with my K-7 matches with a DA 35 Limited Pentax lens. I have taken many superior pictures with it in various situations. It's a macro, but can be used for most subjects. The big advantage is resolution, build quality, and IQ. It also has a f2.8 max aperture. That said, the kit lenses are good too.

As a rule, I would send money on good glass, as bodies are continually superceded, while lenses are not. The limited lenses keep their value longer than the bodies.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 12-07-2010, 02:19 AM  
Upgrade K100D Super
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 14
Views: 2,540
I'd go for the K20. So many good photos I've seen from this camera on the web, but the higher resolution is fine for bigger prints.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 12-07-2010, 01:46 AM  
Pentax K-7 still a viable choice in Shadow of K-5?
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 19
Views: 6,405
Where are you starting from? There's lots to learn with the K-7, but if you are already an expert with DSLRs and have the funds, go for K-5. I use a K-7 and am very happy it except when shooting in very low light and I don't want to use the flash. With K-5 your low light shots will be less grainy or noisy than if you took them with K-7.


Adam
Forum: Post Your Photos! 12-01-2010, 11:41 PM  
Photo of the Week - Mother & Daughter
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 1
Views: 1,829
Mother and daughter in Cambodia
Forum: Post Your Photos! 12-01-2010, 11:36 PM  
Travel South East Asia's nautical side
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 6
Views: 2,295
Great, I love stuff relaed to boats, especially SEA water going craft.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-28-2010, 02:48 AM  
K20d AND 'LIGHT CAST'
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 15
Views: 4,641
It looks like condensation to me. Did you walk out of an airconditioned room, into a humid warm day?
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 11-24-2010, 03:10 AM  
Thematic Into the Fog - Show Your Fog Shots
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 455
Views: 51,416
Taken in Sydney Harbour last year.
Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories 11-24-2010, 02:31 AM  
Post Your PPG Rejects
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 1,115
Views: 140,543
An idyllic Cambodian scene.:)
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-24-2010, 02:12 AM  
The K7 and High ISO noise
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 49
Views: 15,098
Spot on about the limits of ISO 1600. But were you using RAW or jpg? It is a bit easier to adjust an underexposed RAW file as a jpg file has less info in the shadows that can be recovered. ( I think). If you underexpose on RAW or jpg, it is difficult to bring the shadows up without creating lots of noise. I wonder if it is better to overexpose slightly and later recover the highlights?
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-24-2010, 02:07 AM  
The K7 and High ISO noise
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 49
Views: 15,098
I did, straight after I wrote you the email. Thanks for informing me.
Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 11-19-2010, 07:30 PM  
Pentax K-5 images are looking soft against the competition
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 108
Views: 25,341
I am right behind you John. I you remember I agreed with you when you noticed the softness of the IR images. The problem is a lot of posters here don't look carefully (which is odd for photographers). The other problem was that some posters think that nothing can go wrong in testing, that the K-5 tests were always positive, that K-5 is perfect etc. You raised some questions about the testing without jumping to conclusions that the K-5 was soft. You continued to enquire and get to the bottom of the problem, and came to a conclusion that was favourable to Pentax, and equally favourable to the Nikon D7000.

I must say I am not a pixel peeper, but your work with noise reduction on my RAW K-7 pictures taught me that it is better to keep trying to improve the processing and the technical aspects of image capture and sometimes it can be useful to look at 100% crops, especially if one intends to PRINT photos. Unfortunately people look at a 500 kb photo on the Internet and say Wow that's sharp! See what my D* or K* can do? It's unscientific most of the time; so thankyou John and Falk and others for adding some rigour to the discussions.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-19-2010, 11:43 AM  
Finally found peace with my K7
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 14
Views: 3,311
I see what you mean. I was really feeling critical of the way HDR style has become a benchmark; appears obsessional when reading lots of posts about the subject. (But it's OK to be obessional sometimes:).

I agree that high DR allows more flexible post-processing choices and more leeway in the final result. So would you say that the K-5's higher dynamic range allows a lot easier processing? Is the range 3 stops greater than the K-7 in RAW files? Also, would you need to expose the histogram to the right, as is often suggested?
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-18-2010, 11:03 PM  
Finally found peace with my K7
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 14
Views: 3,311
...if the highlights don't add anything to the composition that is. For example background. I've been looking at a lot of pictures by famous photographers and in may cases there are blown highlights and complete black shadows. I don't know why there is this obsession with getting everything in the frame exposed within the full 14 stop DR range. HDR pictures can be interesting but only in rather panoramic scenes, insides of churches for example where there is no single subject to focus on.

Of course blown highlights on sunlit faces are not nice.:(
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-18-2010, 10:44 PM  
Finally found peace with my K7
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 14
Views: 3,311
...if the highlights don't add anything to the composition that is. For example background. I've been looking at a lot of pictures by famous photographers and in may cases there are blown highlights and complete black shadows. I don't know why there is this obsession with getting everything in the frame exposed within the full 14 stop DR range. HDR pictures can be interesting but only in rather panoramic scenes, insides of churches for example where there is no single subject to focus on.

Of course blown highlights on sunlit faces are not nice.:(
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-18-2010, 10:26 PM  
The K7 and High ISO noise
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 49
Views: 15,098
Marcus

Are you sure you can "set mode to save highlights" with RAW? I thought that only applied to jpg. Correct me if I am wrong.

Adam Aitken
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-18-2010, 10:23 PM  
The K7 and High ISO noise
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 49
Views: 15,098
I compared the K-7 RAW files at 1600 ISO with equivalent K-5 and the differences in NOISE are apparent - if you go to 100 % crop. So, the higher ISO capabilities K-5 would be great for stock photographer and very picky shooters who see the noise - as they are looking for it all the time. If you are only putting photos on the web or printing your snap shots, a a lot of point-and-shoot cameras are fine.

I think people are now expecting grain-free imagery from their cameras. Personally, I look for aesthetic qualities where grain or noise doesn't really matter too much. If I were doing commercial work I would worry, and then I would pay for a K-5.

Dynamic range is better with K-5, but more apparent when you take shots with a lot of DR - a wedding photo where the groom's in black and the bride's in white. Then you NEED as much DR as you can get. I would get a K-5 if I were shooting weddings, or I was heavily into landscapes in high contrast environments (lke Nevada deserts for example).

Of course if you have a post-processing software you can compensate for lost shadows and blown highlights with the k-7, but you won't need as much processing with K-5 thus saving you time to other things.

Adam Aitken
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-17-2010, 10:26 PM  
The K7 and High ISO noise
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 49
Views: 15,098
Bert, love the lion. I agree with you that K10 low ISO colours and tone is superior to K-7. I used a K10 before I bought my K-7 in June 2009. I won't use K-7 for jpgs, but develop the RAW files myself.
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-17-2010, 10:23 PM  
The K7 and High ISO noise
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 49
Views: 15,098
Sorry paperbag846, I didn't shoot RAW that day for some reason. Nowadays always do.
If I had captured a RAW file I think I could have improved on the final result.

Adam Aitken
Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion 11-16-2010, 02:32 AM  
Finally found peace with my K7
Posted By adamaitken
Replies: 14
Views: 3,311
Glad you did. I think if you shoot in RAW with a K-7 its easier to remove noise, raise shadow detail and recover highlights. But you need to be the sort of person who enjoys processing their own photos. Maybe you are that person!

Adam Aitken
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