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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-14-2024, 11:50 AM
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Nesting material. Not much, but maybe just that final touch that the nest needs?
 MHHH7746_DxO |
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-27-2024, 03:21 PM
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I have to say I am very happy with the af-c on my K3iii. This photo with the flock passing between the sunflower stems would not have worked with any other camera I have owned.
 MHHH0131_DxO |
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
01-28-2024, 01:29 AM
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Thank you. Well, to be fair I do miss a lot of out-of-focus birds too - but I don’t share those on flickr! :lol:
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-15-2023, 09:09 AM
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"Nighttime" covers most of the hours this time of year in Denmark - but at least we had a bit of snow for a while to lighten things up.
 23-12-01_00005 |
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Forum: General Photography
01-21-2024, 03:41 AM
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We barely see the stars in mid summer. I am hoping for more northern lights before the spring equinox - the new star tracer would be perfect for that!
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-14-2023, 07:10 AM
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 23-11-04_00006
This little gull was fouraging between waves on a windy day. I have only seen them around inland lagoons with still water, so it was a very surprising behaviour to me.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
12-16-2023, 03:14 PM
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It has been a while since I joined the fun here... but I have a strong feeling that when I did, I posted cinnamon rolls like these. Well - it's that time of year again!
 IMGP6979_DxO
Keep it sweet!
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
12-07-2023, 02:38 PM
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I am sure it's just me, I am sure I never learned Capture One well enough to get the most out of it. But still: I am SO impressed with the Deep Prime XD noise cancelling tool. I decided to go back and give it a try with some of the photos that disappointed me the most. This desert wheatear was exquisitely beautiful, but the shadows were really hard and I ended up with a photo that was ruined by noise. Here is a 100% magnification comparison. The best I could do in Capture One on the left, DxO Deep Prime XD on the right. It's incredible!
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
12-07-2023, 03:09 PM
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And another one! My previous best attempt left, DxO Deep Prime XD right:
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
12-08-2023, 04:46 AM
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Thank you Des!
I used Pentax K3iii with a DA* 300mm f4 mounted. I used the default setting for DeepPrime XD, I think the slider reads "intensity" and the default setting is at 40.
With the wheatear I lifted the shadows with the "intelligent lighting", which allows you to define an area of priority and then does a bit of hdr... I turned that down somewhat, though. And then I lifted the luminosity curve a tad as well in a slight s-shape. Sorry, that is not very specific, but I am at my laptop now, so I have to go by memory! :)
With CP1 I fiddled around with the luminosity noise and colour noise settings for noise reduction, but they lose detail very quickly. I couldn't lift the shadows at all, because noise in the shadows was just awful. The bird was wonderful (that goes for both photos really), and I was so sorry I had botched the photo so badly, so I am really very happy with the DxO results.
I also tried noise reduction in the Digital Camera Utility software that comes with the camera. That was more powerful, but when I applied enough to get rid of the noise, it looked overprocessed for my taste, and I lost too much detail. I couldn't find a sweet spot that actually got rid of the noise without ruining the bird.
I still need to figure out the colour tools in DxO. There is no saturation slider except in the colour-wheel thingy (again, I am at the wrong computer!), so maybe you are supposed to apply saturation edits just within specific colour ranges. Which makes sense, I suppose. When you lift shadows, you sometimes need to boost saturation just slightly, I think. But I guess you can define a relevant range on the wheel for that.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-16-2021, 12:13 PM
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I have to say: For years I have dreamt of owning a camera that would let me take a sequence like this one with a fishing caspian tern. I LOVE my k3iii!
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
08-22-2021, 10:34 AM
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OK, so, I know this is cheating, but my K3iii is really tempting me to redefine my BIF shooting...
Butterfly in flight?
---------- Post added 08-22-21 at 11:05 AM ----------
Here's another one to make up for the blatant lack of bird in my other BIF-photo. I'm not sure it counts either though. It flew without wings, apparently...
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
11-29-2023, 03:22 PM
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I am still just trying things out, but DeepPrime XD made this razorbill into something worth keeping - it was extremely noisy. That was a K-3iii with the DA* 300mm
 MHHH5824_DxO |
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
11-27-2023, 02:41 AM
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Spindle, Euonymus europaeus, has deeply furrowed bark like your tree.
It also has very distinctive pink/orange seeds in winter, but I guess not every tree has them every year. Or it could be something completely different! The bark reminded me of spindle.
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
11-27-2023, 12:26 AM
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Thank you Des!
I have followed this forum through a sequence of software over the last decade. When I joined pf I was shooting jpg and using gimp for simple adjustments. Looking at photos here in the forums made me switch to raw and buy Lightroom. Then Lightroom went subscription and I got Capture One... and then they went subscription.
I downloaded a trial version of DxO a few weeks back, and now I went for the black friday offer. It feels like an upgrade from anything I have tried, and I love it so far. The one thing I needed was a good tutorial - so thanks! :)
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Forum: Repairs and Warranty Service
04-13-2019, 02:19 PM
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No, I think you got it right UncleVanya: The focus is (was?) completely stuck. The idea of an o-ring jamming the focus ring makes sense: Nothing seems out of place really, nothing seems loose or anything when I handle or gently shake the lens, but the focus just doesn't respond when the rubber ring is turned.
That's the thing. I do NOT know how to dismantle and assemble it, and I am quite scared of the idea. BUT my eldest son, who is a makerspace enthusiast and afraid of nothing, teenage-style, took a look and promised to help. So we got out the old copy of the lens, and he was looking it over, trying to figure out where to start - and searching for advice on reddit - when suddenly the ring began to respond again. I mounted the old copy, and now the focus suddenly worked again!
So we took the new copy, messed around with it for a while, just turning, gently shaking, doing nothing sensible really - and, well, suddenly it responds as well. I went to show my husband, and then it jammed again. Now it works again. So I have two periodically failing DA*300mm lenses. I will bring both. And... just possibly also my 55-300 - because I DO have that one, but it is really quite soft at 300mm, and when you shoot birds and tend to crop heavily it isn't a very rewarding lens.
When we get back from our holidays, I will pull myself together and send the warranty-covered lens in for repairs, and maybe we can find out if it IS the o-ring issue. I will get back to you if I end up any wiser. Right now at least I have some hope for my holiday birding. I just REALLY hope that the next fault doesn't happen right when that lammergeier turns up overhead... :)
Thanks a million for your support and advice. As always, I love this forum. :)
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
08-11-2022, 12:13 AM
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I wish it was that simple. I changed the setting from sRGB to Adobe RGB based on advice from the CP1-forum. But it made absolutely no difference.
I will try out your other bit of advice about the metadata when I get home from work. I thought that only affected which information was included and not the actual processing? Anyway, definitely worth a shot!
Thank you for your advice.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
02-20-2022, 02:00 PM
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Here is a slightly different moon shot. I was visiting my brother's house i Tampa while the moon was full, and while the moon was about to set and a lot of birds became active, I thought I might be able to catch a moon-flyover. So I stopped down to f10 with enough light for ISO 640 / 1/1000 sec, aimed and hoped - and this white ibis was collaborative.
Not technically impressive maybe, but it made me happy! :)
 22-02-17Moon |
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Forum: Pentax K-3 III
06-11-2021, 02:35 PM
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Since the new AF does such an amazing job with fast-moving subjects, I tried to lurk along with this lurking tiger beetle, which had its eye on a damselfly.
I'm sorry to say that when the action finally happened (long lurk), the damselfly was faster than the tiger beetle - and they were both faster than I was. So, no action shots from this scene!
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
01-25-2022, 02:04 PM
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And that's the right attitude, of course. Styles could become the opposite of a learning opportunity, if they became short cuts in place of figuring out what the individual photo needs.
I guess I had this lurking doubt that I was missing out on something. That, just possibly, people more brilliant than myself had figured out ways to bring out unseen potential in my photos that I would never arrive at myself.
Well, it sounds silly enough when I write it. You make a lot of sense - and your advice saves me money: What's not to like? :)
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
01-02-2022, 07:51 AM
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Thanks - you guys are simply amazing!
Oldbayrunner nailed it - this is the one I had. I highly recommend it. Highly recommend not losing it as well. :)
It just occured to me that the buckles on the small straps that are still attached to my camera houses might have the brand printed into the plastic, and they do.
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
12-29-2021, 09:56 AM
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You are probably right about the future of lingering precautions. You are definitely right about the noise and possibly the blur as well, but this is sort of my holiday photo strategy: I try to capture things as they happen, and now with the K1ii I have decided to rely on ambient light - even if it means a slightly over optimistic shutter speed. My hands (and stabilisation) are steady enough, but the subjects tend to move.
Which is one reason why none of my Christmas photos qualify for the monthly contest's "Seasonal" theme - but they do their job well enough of capturing the atmosphere.
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