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Forum: Pentax K-r
05-21-2013, 02:53 PM
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I shoot mostly (99%) jpegs. I only go to raw when the shot is important, hurried and with difficult exposure,
or if the scene holds great promise. Those situations are rare for me but it does happen.
I usually use the portrait setting. It's good for family and events with people as the main subject.
I like Bright for sports or colourful scenery like carnivals or parades, where I set
"shadow contrast" to -3 to get those wonderful dark blacks.
Sometimes I like Muted, Bleach bypass or Reversal film to enhance or counteract a mood in the scene.
I rarely use Vibrant or Landscape.
Natural is particularly good for coping with those blown reds that shift to magenta.
Or purples that shift to blue. Natural with a little underexposure and perhaps -1
saturation handles those bright colours with fidelity.
I really like the "save latest shot as raw" Pentax speciality. I also often redevelop the latest shot with
different jpeg settings (like shadow protection) directly from the custom image screen.
Regarding post processing, I feel that you can easily (for my quality standards anyway)
adjust things like white balance, saturation, contrast, colour casts etc. on a jpeg, as long as
that OOC jpeg was in the ballpark to begin with. You can not make heavy contrast and tone curve
manipulations though, like "lifting the shadows" several stops.
I completely understand why professionals and artisans use RAW for maximum safety and flexibility.
I'd also do so myself if I saw the need. But the in-camera jpeg engine is sufficient for me 99% of the
time. The Pentax jpeg engine is very flexible and has lots of sliders and settings to tweak.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
08-12-2015, 11:02 AM
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 | Thematic Cats!
Posted By
asp1880 |
Replies: 2,077
Views: 114,297
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I just had him put down two days ago because of kidney failure.
That was hard but he's better off that way. He was 15 years old.
He's the only cat I've known who'd purr just by me looking at him. He also recognised his own name and
would start purring when he heard it.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-11-2014, 06:48 AM
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This is a fun and inspiring (and a little intimidating?) thread.
I finally found some time and the right mood to put together a contribution. Let's see if this
thread can pick up some speed again.
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
09-03-2013, 12:34 AM
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Perhaps you ought to set the custom image settings on a shot-to-shot basis.
My personal default is Portrait because I like the skin tones it gives me.
I also adjust the contrast on a shot-to-shot basis depending on the light
(the harder the light the more I lower contrast, and I start to consider shadow protection).
All custom image settings can be used for good results depending on the subject
and the mood you want to create.
Muted gives that sun drenched look in low sun (combine with cloudy WB),
or it can enhance a grey foggy day.
Reversal film is great on summer days and gives a happy vibe to the images.
Bleach bypass goes well with depressing subjects like urban decay or looming storms.
You can also set contrast and high/low key to approx, 0 on bleach bypass and get something
that looks like a cine grading. Fun stuff.
Natural is good for coping with problem colours like highly saturated and bright reds
or purples that often shift into magenta or blue. Backlit roses etc.
You can use the high/low key setting to "lift the shadows" in backlit situations
where the foreground would ordinarily be too dark.
I've dialed in +2 amber on the AWB to counter the blue cast it usually gives me.
Then I'm happy with AWB outside under changing clouds. If it's clear sky or full
overcast I usually go with the sunny or cloudy WB as it's a tad better and more
predictable than AWB.
It's fun to select an "incorrect" white balance for effect. Sunsets on cloudy WB and
the Landscape custom image with +2 saturation and +2 hue (magenta shift) are great.
Some people scoff at the in-camera possibilities and will tell you to just do everything
in post. In a sense that's true because everything you can do in camera you can
do better in post. Nevertheless I like the instant gratification I get from creating a
more or less complete image right on the spot. But I'm just a happy amateur and family
shooter.
If you demand the highest quality of results and the highest level of control, if you
can't tolerate missed shots at all or if you need to work fast on the shoot (eg. wedding
photography), in-camera features are not for you.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
05-05-2013, 02:22 PM
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| | Thematic Trees
Posted By
asp1880 |
Replies: 5,959
Views: 396,475
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
07-04-2013, 02:10 AM
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Wow, that's approaching NatGeo quality. Good composition and light, interesting and exotic motive.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
02-06-2017, 11:48 AM
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I like the way the foreground and background mirror each other. Great stuff. --Anders.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
10-02-2016, 02:44 AM
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That's depending on the chosen program line. Program line is the trade off between shutter, aperture and iso and it's only applicable in P and green auto. You can choose the program line in P mode in the menus and you let the camera pick the program line based on focal length and focus distance when in green auto.
I know the "Normal" program line best. It has an inflection point where the light level corresponds to wide open aperture, lowest auto-ISO and 1/Fl shutter speed. In stronger light, it speeds the shutter and closes the aperture evenly. In lower light, it raises the ISO until it reaches max auto-ISO. As the light wanes even more, it starts to slow the shutter.
On the K-3 there's an additional inflection point for lenses f/2.0 and faster. The K-5 didn't have that.
Program line properties are hard to descrive in words as well as in pictures. If you're genuinely interested, I suggest you experiment yourself. Put the camera in P mode, pick the Normal program line and point it at different light levels to study what it does. I assure you it's completely deterministic and it's possible to understand it well enough to use it to your advantage when appropriate.
Regards,
-Anders.
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Forum: Pentax Full Frame
07-16-2016, 05:25 AM
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For shooting inside darkrooms? :-)
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
07-10-2016, 04:43 AM
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If you want an external battery back for the faster cycle time, it'll have to be a high voltage power supply, not a 4xAA 6 volt DIY solder and gaffa tape job that connects to the battery compartment contacts.
I also recommend the JJC power pack, from personal experience.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
12-12-2014, 02:59 PM
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Those two supplementary sliders affect the extremes of the jpeg tone curve. I struggled to understand what they did at first. Since they are called "contrast", I assumed they adjusted the tone curve steepness in the dark and bright ends. But that's not it.
It's a bit simpler:
Shadow contrast +/- makes the dark parts of the image brighter/darker respectively.
Highlight contrast +/- makes the bright parts of the image brighter/darker respectively.
You know how the "reversal film" custom image makes all dark parts go black? You can make the other custom images do the same thing by setting shadow contrast to -4. I think it's called "crushing the blacks" in some parts of the world.
Here's how to experiment:
1. Take a normally exposed shot of an average scene with suitable contrast. Nothing blown, nothing too dark. Save as RAW.
2. Use in-camera RAW development to develop that RAW file in 5 different ways, namely (A) neutral, (B) highlight contrast -4,
(C) highlight contrast +4, (D) shadow contrast -4, (E) shadow contrast +4.
3. Flick between these 5 different images in playback and study how the dark and bright parts differ.
It's a subtle effect. I don't use it much. I've set shadow contrast to -3 on my "Bright" custom image for extra dark blacks when the scene really needs some punch to work.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-08-2016, 01:36 PM
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Yes, high contrast scenes are where RAW starts to make a lot of sense.
But the JPEG engine offers some tools too.
You should always expose for the highlights of course.- You can enable highlight protection for that extra stop of highlight headroom.
- You can use shadow protection on mid or max to lift the shadows.
- You can use the high/low key slider to lift the midtones.
- You can use the contrast slider to lower contrast - that also helps to manage the scene DR.
In total, all those tricks can lift the shadows around 2.5 stops in camera.
To make it work in camera you need the time to eyeball the scene contrast. And you need
practice with the JPEG engine to set it up before the exposure.
Another life saver is the "save as raw" feature. That thing makes me dare to shoot a lot more
stuff as JPEG than I'd otherwise do.
Yet another life saver is the ability to redevelop the most recent shot again and again
with different JPEG settings, including shadow protection and white balance.
Here's an old JPEG example of mine, where I spot metered to put the clouds at +2, used contrast at 0,
highlight protection on and shadow protection on max with the monochrome image style.
Regards,
--Anders.
---------- Post added 8th Jul 2016 at 22:45 ----------
You can also bring up the shadows in camera JPEGS with the shadow protection feature.
But in your case (get it right now or wait till next year?) I'd at least shoot RAW+JPEG for insurance.
Love your work, BTW.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-09-2016, 10:24 AM
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There are lots of cases such as this one where the light and conditions are very static. There's time to set up the JPEG contrast, saturation etc. to give a great result for that shooting session. The key is to adjust JPEG settings to match the location, light and subject matter.
Regards,
--Anders.
---------- Post added 9th Jul 2016 at 19:37 ----------
Yes, it's called shadow and highlight correction, not protection. You might need to set your ISO to something other than 100 to have access to highlight correction "on".
About the contrast highlight and shadow adjustment sliders, here's a rerun posting from me about those:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/282312-contrast-highlight-...ml#post3073704
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
05-19-2016, 12:27 PM
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Sports. It works for sports.
I've never really understood this "which focal length for what subject"? discussion. Either the focal length follows from the distance and the desired framing, or it follows from the kind pf perspective you desire. I've also shot sports with an UWA and it's completely different but sports nonetheless. Like this:
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
08-26-2014, 07:11 AM
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Exactly. You have to see it and apply the appropriate jpeg settings in camera, before you press the shutter.
Contrast, shadow compensation, saturation, hue, etc. Those are all tools that can handle high or low contrast situations in camera.
For me personally, the point of the no post processing approach is to know your tool (jpeg engine in camera) well enough to be
able to "pre-post-process" a shot in advance.
"this is hard sunshine, EC -0.7, contrast -1, shadow comp medium"
"this is golden hour backlit, EC -1, high/lowkey +2, contrast +2, saturation -1, white balance cloudy"
"this is shade, contrast +2, EC +0.3"
"uh-oh, a bright red shirt, custom image natural, saturation -1, hue +2"
"urban decay scene, custom image bleach bypass, high contrast filter on level 1"
... or whatever.
Of course, everything you can do in camera you can do better in post. So I understand why lots of people scoff at the "no-pp approach".
It's evident that the approach is deficient with respect to optimal results.
But it can still be fun.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
01-05-2016, 06:21 AM
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What do you want the camera to do when the light gets low and shutter speed gets slow?
If you answer "increase the ISO", you can try to experiment with the different "slow, normal, fast" options in auto ISO. They do exactly what you ask for.
You don't set a fixed shutter speed limit, the limit is set in relation to the lens focal length, so as you zoom, the shutter speed limit changes.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-27-2015, 06:04 AM
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I have the same feeling about my own 16-50. Sometimes it seems to disappoint, with no apparent reason. Focus was allright, aperture and focal length was middle of the road, shutter speed was adequate, the light had nice directionality, and yet - WTF? Dreamy pictures with fuzzy edges.
Other times it produces stunning results.
Perhaps mine is defective in the same manner yours are?
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Welcomes and Introductions
11-02-2015, 03:02 AM
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I usually suggest that prospective pentaxians investigate whether the Pentax and 3rd party lens lineups offer the lenses they are personally interested in.
It's trivially true that the sheer number of lens offerings is larger for the big two brands. But - the difference is mostly in expensive lenses and exotica such as tilt-shift lenses, supertelephotos and f/1.4 wideangles.
The big two brands' APS-C lens offerings is decidedly weak, IMHO. They suggest that you buy 35mm lenses to fill the gaps, putting you up with larger lenses than necessary.
The Pentax lineup has some unique standouts too:
- affordable weathersealed lenses
- characterful all-metal pancake primes
- the FA limiteds
- The largest lineup of APS-C specific (meaning smaller) lenses among all manufacturers.
So what would you rather have access to? Lots of +2k$ exotics, zeiss otuses and ginormous Sigma art beasts, or compact, affordable Pentax lenses?
(and BTW, eg. Nikon has done a good job at putting out affordable f/1.8 primes lately. That also counts for something. And the Nikkor 35mm/1.8 is nice. And the Canon 10-18 is nice and affordable too. etc.)
So to sum it up: Don't look at the number of lenses available, look at the types of lenses available in relation to what you want. That's key, IMHO.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Photo Critique
11-18-2015, 02:47 AM
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I think it's important that the viewer can easily identify the surroundings - the forest that goes with the chaisaw. For that reason I think the first exposure is too long. The background is blurred beyond recognition.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Lens Clubs
09-28-2015, 12:08 PM
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The shot was worth it. You can even make out the curvature of the earth from this height :lol::lol::lol: Fisheye magic.
Regards,
--Anders.
---------- Post added 28th Sep 2015 at 21:11 ----------
Some subjects almost demand the fisheye treatment.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-14-2011, 01:10 AM
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Sometimes there is. Highlight protection can save your blown out sky. You can also save that blown out sky with a graduated filter (colloquial: ND grad filters). Highlight protection can also save your blown out windows or other highlights. A filter can't do the same.
Shadow correction can "lift" the deep shadows. Sometimes you can also do that with flash and other times you can't.
These two settings have subtle effects but believe me, they work. Once you learn to see what they do, you'll appreciate them.
Adam mentioned they slow down processing. Well maybe they do, but it's not much. You can still shoot action at full burst speed with highlight and shadow protection.
Another downside is more noise. But that's a nonissue at low iso on the K-5. I wouldn't use the d-range features above say ISO 800 or so.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
09-08-2015, 01:52 PM
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Here's a tip you might enjoy: when in manual mode, press the exposure lock button and then spin either wheel. The camera will maintain equivalent exposure but trade aperture and shutterspeed against each other.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-03-2015, 01:55 AM
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Forum: General Talk
08-27-2015, 12:25 PM
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I've always wanted one of these. I finally found one in Vienna this summer.
Regards,
--Anders.
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Forum: Flashes, Lighting, and Studio
08-31-2015, 01:37 AM
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I've also got the JJC power pack in question. It's great with the 540 and it really shortens the recycle times down to 1.5 seconds or so.
Two problems I can think of:
1. It's unhandy when mounted in the tripod socket under the camera.
2. It doesn't work with the 540's auto power off mode. I've found that when the 540 has gone into sleep mode with the
power pack connected and switched on, the flash won't fire when woken up again. The workaround is to disable
auto power off or to power cycle the flash and power pack. Perhaps it's a bug in the 540 and not in the JJC pack.
It's a thing to consider if the flash is mounted somewhere inaccessible.
Regards,
--Anders.
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