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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
09-28-2014, 12:51 PM
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Just a few weeks ago I went out shooting around central London on a Sunday afternoon. I headed primarily to Soho, which is a place that is always bustling with activity. I spent a few hours there shooting on the streets, and when I was finally approaching the Oxford Circus Underground station to go home I spotted this road sign on the Argyll Street. I thought it could work as a nice juxtaposition if I manage to get the right subject.
I waited patiently and photographed several passers-by as subjects. I was almost ready to go when I spotted these two ladies. They were walking pretty swiftly, with long strides, maybe heading to a theatre a bit late. I was astonished how perfectly the colours of the first lady matched the road sign! Click! I was really lucky in that moment.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
03-04-2014, 03:21 PM
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John, thank you! That;s exactly what I needed! I watched the tutorial, and I have realised that there is a lot about Lightroom that I don't know. I sense a learning curve ahead, which is something I like.
The bottom line from me is that the k-3 is an amazing camera! I already can't wait to get out shooting again!
Thanks again, and sorry everyone for hijacking the thread.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
03-03-2014, 02:23 PM
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Hi all, first, thanks for all your replies and advice! I really appreciate that.
Barry, thanks for your suggestion. I'll try the selective sharpening with the mask for areas that require sharpening. Looks like I should avoid sharpening of high ISO photos whenever possible.
rawr, my experience is that I actually haven't seen noise on the k-3's screen, so I assumed that the photos will be clean. But then I found noise when reviewing the pictures in 100% on screen on my computer. Point taken though, I understand that if I print / scale down photos, most of the noise I can see at 100% will be gone.
However, even if I scale down some of my photos, I don't get such clarity as can be seen in the this photo or this photo by john5100, or this one by rondec. I'm not sure what's the trick here, but I guess I might also check if my lenses focus properly.
Thanks for your tips, mainly for
What do you mean by "crush the blacks" BTW?
Rondec, thanks for your suggestions. I'll make sure to avoid sharpening when not necessary. I don't tend to bump the exposure too much in PP, I usually get it mostly right, so that should be fine. I'll check out Nik Dfine! Great photo! Really nice and crisp. If I learn how to get to such results, I'll be totally happy. Clearly, the high ISO "problem" with k-3 looks to be more in the hands of the photographer, than in the camera.
- thanks for mentioning this, Dan! Will definitely check out that!
John, that's fantastic! Again, this level of crispness and preserved detail seems is exactly what I'm after. Could you please share your routine? I can imagine that if I took the picture, there would be an awful lot of noise for ISO5000 if viewed at 100%. I also wonder what you mean by pushing to ISO10,000? Are you saying that you essentially pushed the exposure by a stop in PP?
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
03-03-2014, 01:20 AM
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Hi all, I was following the thread right from the start, especially after I got my new k-3 two weeks ago, replacing my loved k10d that I had for six and half years. The k-3 is an unbelievable step up in the game, and I can confess honestly that when I took her (the k-3) for a three-day shooting trip, I was able to capture photos with light conditions and hight dynamic range scenes, that I'd never be able to capture with the k10d.
I was truly excited about the k-3's high ISO performance over the k10d, and I was shooting interiors at ISO1600, 3200 and even 6400. I never went higher than ISO400 on k10d, so you can imagine what a change this was for me.
However, when I opened my RAWs in my Lightroom 5 when I got home, I was slightly disappointed first. There actually was a noise on ISO3200! Well maybe the expectations were too high first. So I played bit with NR settings in Lightroom, and then exported some of the photos to low resolution, about 1600 pixels high / wide. Obviously, this improved the noise massively.
I was still surprised to see how clean and defined are some of the photographs in this thread. A good PP technique and NR software was mentioned a few times. Now I have to say that because I was really avoiding high ISO on k10d, I have zero experience with those. I googled a few tutorials, but I'm not sure if I'm doing any good really.
Could you please point out, how do you go about noise reduction in post-processing, please? Maybe you have a routine, maybe you use a plug-in, or a dedicated software with good algorithms? If you can share a bit of your expertise with that, I'd be massively grateful. |
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Forum: Monthly Photo Contests
02-28-2014, 12:37 PM
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Found this delightfully decorated tree when walking through the Bath, UK, on last weekend's evening. Maybe the locals celebrated something, but I suspect that they were just too lazy to remove the Christmas decorations!
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-22-2009, 11:41 AM
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How sad is to see The Thread dying... I was watching it right from the beginning (although I contributed just two times) until now and the waiting for new K30D (ok, K-7 now) was really exciting and I guess I'll remember that for a long time.
Anyway I really look forward for getting the new Pentax, I hope I'll have enough money about autumn (well in the meantime I need to get DA15 :-D)
Thanks everybody for this great discussion, have a good light and enjoy K-7!
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-16-2009, 06:15 AM
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Yes, this is exactly my problem - the size of the exit pupil. I am not able to use such a small one as is in the O-ME53.
If anyone will know how to solve it, please let me know.
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Forum: Pentax News and Rumors
05-16-2009, 01:17 AM
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I was watching this forum since the first post and I am really excited about K-7 and was dreaming about using that jewel with my DA35Ltd, but now, well...
I don't care about FPS, I don't care about size, weight, I don't care about video... About LiveView, about any sort of VF overlay, about better battery, about WR kit lens
Pentax was my choice becouse of k10d's VF - I can't see properly, I wear glasses (which are not very helpful anyway) - but I am still passionate photographer.
I need big, bright VF to look in, so the small hole with little lens in that O-ME53 is rather counterproductive for me. If Pentax speaks about giving photographers the tool they need, they should give them nice VF first.
A FLAGSHIP model with smaller (or similar in size) VF than k10/20 with less magnification - are they gone mad?
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
03-20-2009, 01:42 AM
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Thanks for all replies, you all have been helpful - finally I will get the Cokin holder + Hitech grad soon (hopefully), so I will see and test it on my own!
Have a great day!
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-17-2009, 09:17 AM
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-16-2009, 05:19 AM
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Thank you guys for the helpful replies!
So if I understood it properly, where I want to use the hyperfocal focusing, I need to know the particular hyperfocal focusing distance for each aperture, correct?
Than set this distance on focusing ring in manual mode and shoot.
Is it right, or am I missing something?
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
03-13-2009, 02:28 AM
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Hi guys, I got my first Ltd lens (which is my first fixed focal length lens) on Monday. I am really excited about the build quality and the colour rendering and the macro capabilities. I am going to try it out to the moors tomorrow and I am really looking forward!
Anyway, there is couple of things I am not very sure about. If there are any DA 35 Ltd owners, who could give me couple of answers, I will be more than happy :-)
1) DOF scale
When shooting landscapes, I would like to focus hyperfocally. But the DA 35's DOF scale is pretty... narrow. I am not sure, how to use it, say compared to other Ltds, which have probably more usable DOF scale.
So guys, the question is, how do you do your hyperfocal focusing with DA 35?
2) AF macro focusing in 1:1 distance
I tried to use AF focusing (AF-S), when shooting the subject really close in front of the lens - but the AF was desperately hunting. When I set the focus to manual, set the lens to the 1:1 ratio manually and tried to focus by changing the distance of the camera and subject, everything was ok.
Do you use AF for 1:1 photos? Or how do you actually focus in those cases?
Thank you!
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-27-2009, 05:22 AM
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Hm, that sounds quite helpful. Do you use the original Hitech filter holder + adaptor ring, or any other system to hold the filters? And if so, have you got the aluminium / plastic version?
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-27-2009, 05:04 AM
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Not really. I know I can use normal filter and attach the cokin (or whatever) system on the top - BUT - how efficient it is? Is it easy to operate the polariser, when the cokin filter is attached?
And if I wil rotate the polariser, does that mean that I will rotate the cokin holder at the same time? - that can cause problems, I gues, becouse after rotating the polariser, I will need to re-level the holder with the horizon - which could cause another rotation of polariser... if you know what I mean :-)
So the question is - is there any way, how to operate such a combination of filters simultaneously without problems, in efficient way? Just asking about best practice you guys have with this combination of filters.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
02-27-2009, 04:25 AM
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Hi guys,
I was reading the forum for a while, but never registered. So please let me say hello to everybody here first:
Hello!
It's great to have a Pentax dedicated forum, so thanks to admins / moderators and all contributors.
Right, now please let me ask my first question - about filters. I read a lot about filters and I think I've got the idea when and why to use it. I'am already using Sigma Pro 1 slim polariser and sometimes Sigma ND filter for slowing the exposure.
Now I started to think about ND grads. I understood the Cokin filters aren't the best ones, you can get - but Lee ones are pretty expensive for me. Finally I decided to go for Hitech ones from Formatt - they should be decent quality for reasonable price. (Any thoughts?) I don't want to go for screw-in grad filters.
But what I actually need to ask is: I would like to use the polariser + the ND grad in the same time. Is it actually possible?
I would like to use these filters on DA Ltd lenses (35mm, 70mm and upcoming 15mm one) - won't there be a problem with the lens hood?
Can I mount the polariser on the lens, than attach the square filter holder, operate the polariser for the effect I want and finally put the ND Grad on it's place... I never did it so could you let me know about some sort of BEST PRACTICE?
Or just how to operate polariser + ND Grad in the same time? In efficient and fast way?
Thank you, guys!
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