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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
01-17-2010, 12:56 PM
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I like this technique, many thanks for sharing
Pentax K100D
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Forum: Photographic Technique
12-06-2009, 12:36 AM
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With the K20D, you must ensure in Custom menu that #14 is set to 1, if the AF with shutter is set to Off, this technique will not function.
Also found that in continuous mode to select "slow" (FN button function)
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Forum: Lens Clubs
08-08-2009, 01:36 AM
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K20D
SMC P-M 50mm F1.7
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
08-03-2009, 03:00 AM
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Hi
Is it possible to use matrix metering when using a M type lens, obviously having set the A ring for permission, the manual is not clear on this point.
I normally use Spot but wondered if it is possible to use matrix?
regards
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
07-13-2009, 03:11 AM
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K20D
SMC P-A 80-200mm F4.7-5.6
ISO 3200
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
07-02-2009, 04:31 AM
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I love to see these street images, great insite into other parts of the world.
Excellent images, nice natural saturation
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
07-02-2009, 04:26 AM
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Excellent images Heinrich, we do not have any waterfalls here in SE Spain, so its nice to see some
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
07-02-2009, 03:43 AM
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Taken with my new K20D and a Pentax A 80-200mm F4.7-5.6 lens
Processed RAW file in Silkypix 3
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Forum: Pentax DSLR Discussion
06-26-2009, 03:17 AM
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Forum: Photographic Technique
06-25-2009, 06:22 AM
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When I lived in South west England, I used to drive my wife mad by saying "What shade of grey will the sky be today", as I write this from SE Spain, the temperature is 38 degrees (100 degrees F) and we have not seen any amount of cloud for nearly 1 month.
The contrast range in sunny Spain really makes it difficult to balance an exposure.
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Forum: Photo Critique
06-12-2009, 01:21 PM
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Interesting cloud formation in Central NW Murcia.
At this time of the year (June), we have many hundreds of swifts swooping around the house and the mountain
BW conversion from a RAW file with Convert to BW
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Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
04-27-2009, 02:53 AM
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For a zero cost option, I suggest RawTherapee to process your images, will do both jpg and RAW images and for additional adjustments, use GIMP
Just use Google to get links to the software
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Forum: Lens Clubs
02-26-2009, 12:12 PM
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Two images taken late this afternoon, evening sunshine
K100D
smc Pentax Manual 50mm F1.7
Taken at F8
Nectarine sapling
Flowering succulent
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Forum: Pentax Compact Cameras
11-27-2008, 12:27 AM
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The demon drink
Cannon A470 P&S
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-12-2008, 12:11 AM
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More images from the A 80-200mm F4.7-5.6
House sparrow
Derelict Shed
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Forum: Photographic Technique
11-08-2008, 12:07 AM
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This item was written some months ago in DPreview Pentax forum, it may help
Manual focus tutorial
It's much easier to teach focusing in person. Writing up a procedure to do it is tedious. Happily, with a digital camera, it is easier to practice without wasting a ton of film in the process.
Here's a short sequence to experiment with:
- Start easy: Pick a medium focal length lens, like 50-70mm, and preferably a fast lens. (you can do it with a zoom set to this focal length too.
- Place a target about 2m away, separated from foreground and background. The target should be something with some surface texture to work with, or something with a mix of 6, 9, 12, 14 and 18 point font on it. Light it adequatelly for a wide open aperture and short exposure time (like 1/200 second). Lock in the exposure manually so it cannot vary on you.
- Get comfortable with the camera and set it to MF mode.
- Twist the focusing ring from infinity to closest focus at a medium speed. Then the other direction after a short pause. And again and again. Do it slow enough that you can watch the focus transition from blur to sharp to blur, but fast enough that the transition to critically sharp "pops" for a moment as you turn. OBSERVE the focus transition carefully, over and over again. Get a feel for how much time/how much angular displacement of the focusing ring causes how much focus transition to occur.
The trick is to look at a subject and know the lens well enough to turn the focusing at the speed which makes the sharp moment pop, and be able to stop PRECISELY at that point.
- Start trying to achieve that point of focus ... only turn in one direction and try to stop just once, make an. exposure. DON'T look at it immediately on the LCD ... it helps if you turn off the review function. You want to repeat from close limit and from infinity ten times each.
- Then download the image files to your computer and sort them into frame order. Look at them, one at a time, at 1:1 pixel resolution and mark down which are in focus and which are slightly off. Try to remember for each one what you felt as you stopped and made the exposure.
Repeat this exercise until you get nine frames sharp. Then repeat it again doing 20 frame sequences until you get 19 frames sharp. Do as many as you can but DON'T keep going until you get tired, stop and take a break for a little while. The point is to plant in your finger and eye memory how fast to turn the ring and how to stop instantly when you see the point of best focus, just once.
- Once you're doing sequences of 20 shots and getting them all in focus, double the target distance with the same lens and do the same exercise over again. Once you get 20 out of 20 with that repeatedly, you can double the distance again. It gets faster as you go along. By the time you get there, you should set up two more targets so you have three ... 2, 4, and 8m ... and do a couple of sequences where you focus on each one at a time ... put it in the center of the frame so you know which your focusing on ... and do the same sequence of 20 until you get them all in focus through the sequence repeatedly.
So now you know what it's like to focus that lens quickly and reliably, with your eye alone.
- Change the lens to a shorter focal length (say 28 to 35mm). Start at the beginning but use 1.5m as a starting point. Same rig, same target, different focal length ... the shorter the focal length, the more subtle the focus transition is to observe.
- Keep doing the sequences with shorter and shorter lenses until you get to the shortest lens you have. Realize that when you get down to the 18-20mm range, you have to accept either a slower pace or a few more erroneous focusing frames to "finish" a sequence.
This kind of skill does not take exceptional eyesight; it takes the ability to see the motion of the focus transition 'stop' or pop for an instant and the muscular ability to stop turning the focus ring precisely at that instant. I've been able to get perfect critical focus using it even when my glasses were covered with guck after a hot session on a sweaty day or I dropped them and could not stop taking photos for one reason or another. All you're looking for is that point of "pop" in focus as the image moves a tiny bit, and to stop your fingers at that moment, you're not trying to see the details.
I'm sure that if you go through this exercise with calm motivation, you'll find your manual focusing reliability improve ten fold in a day. I've been doing this so long and with so many different cameras that it just seems to come naturally to me. First thing I do whenever I fit an unknown lens to my camera is switch to MF and just rack it in and out from infinity to close limit focus a couple of times to "calibrate" my eye and fingers. Within a few moments of that, I'm ready ... I rarely get a bad focus, if I bother to look through the viewfinder and focus at all ...
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
11-02-2008, 09:15 AM
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Hi, you could try car boot sales, here in Spain they are called Rastro,s.
I recently found and purchased a pristine Pentax 50mm F1.7 M together with a Pentax ME for 10€ =7.92 pounds = $12.73
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Forum: Lens Clubs
11-02-2008, 04:30 AM
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Just purchased this Pentax A 80-200mm F4.7-5.6 on ebay for $30,camera is the K100D
First image at 80mm setting
Second image at 200mm setting
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Forum: Lens Clubs
10-21-2008, 09:58 AM
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SMC P-M 50mm F1.7
Purchased for €10 at car boot sale complete with a Pentax ME
Following images taken with K100D
1. Bullas Murcia España
2. Mula Murcia España
Flickr: mulaphoto's Photostream |
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Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion
09-15-2008, 02:23 AM
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Went to a Rastro (Car boot sale) yesterday and found a mint SMC M 50mm f1.7 on a ME, cost €10 - 7.9 GBP or 14.2 USD
Indoor image, natural light
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Forum: Post Your Photos!
02-03-2008, 10:48 AM
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These guys usually meet most sunday mornings in the Ayuntamienyo (Town Hall) plaza for a chat whilst their wifes attend mid morning mass
RAW image processed and converted to TIFF in Raw Shooter (modified to read .PEF files from the K100D), the opened in Adobe CS2 and B&W conversion with Power Retouche Black and white studio, adjustments made to bring out detail in shadows with Paint with light action, finally saved as jpg.
Pentax K100D 18 - 55 mm lens, 400ASA, Spot meetering, Aperature priority, 1/320 at f13
Date taken 3 Feb 2008 clear blue sky sun
Would appreciate C&C please
John
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Forum: General Talk
02-03-2008, 06:44 AM
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Mula, Province Murcia, España
The dryest plave in Europe, more than 330 days of sunshine and we celebrate when it rains
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