|
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
08-29-2014, 04:26 AM
|
| |
Friends of mine had a wedding recently, I was one of the guests. I knew that they would have a photographer, but still I decided to do some photography just for the sake of experiment. Besides it is always good to have several people shooting such an event : different style. different angles, etc.Considering that 16-50 is still in the maintenance, I opted for Sigma 18-35. I did not bring flash with me, because I wanted to make full use of available light and I did not feel like lugging it around.
The experience was mixed. On one hand F1.8 was very useful to keep the ISO low, on the other hand the depth of field was too shallow, due to a rather limited space inside the wedding palace. The camera was set to TAv mode, because I needed fast shutter speeds and a matching Auto ISO. I shot mostly from F1.8 to F2.8. Surpisingly there were lots of misfocused shots. Sometimes I was not able to figure out if the subject is not sharp due to the high iso, or if the lens failed to lock the focus properly. In most cases it seemed like the lens was only a tiny bit off, but considering the sharpness of the lens, it was instantly noticeable. Still the shots that were successful, were good enough for some really heavy cropping. 35 mm was frequently not long enough, but the combination of this lens and Pentax K-3 allowed to compensate for that during the post processing. The images that I shot inside and some of those shot outside were processed in DxO, to achieve better noise reduction. Certain images were processed in Lightroom and Exposure 4.
In most cases I was shooting in the background, so to say, not to interfere with the main photographer. Sometimes I was shooting the scenes the other photographer set up, but I did them from different angles and different distance, so the couple for not posing for me, which made some of the shots more interesting. Here is a link to the album with the rest of the shots I chose to upload : https://flic.kr/s/aHsk1YFA8Z .
The couple is heading towards the limousine, that will take them to the wedding palace.
Listening to the speech
The groom is putting a wedding ring on the bride's finger.
The kiss to seal the union.
The couple "attacked" by curious asian tourists.
Posing in the fortress wall niche.
The bride and the sea.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
08-04-2017, 02:24 AM
|
| |
Mounted on K-3 II. Pixelshift. 29mm F6.3 20 Seconds. A building of an old university library in Wroclaw / Breslau, Poland.
 IMGP5061_DxO by Roman Zaytsev, on Flickr
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
06-06-2020, 08:56 AM
|
| |
Plitvice Lakes / Plitvička Jezera national park, Croatioa. Shot in 2016, reworked in 2020 from the original raw file. I used masking on the sky to selectively darken it. At the time the original image was shot functionality of DxO OpticsPro 10 (predecessor of Photolab) did not allow to selectively modify area of an image, so I had to find ways to bring out the shadows and keep the highlights. As you see the image ended up looking flat and unnatural.
Pentax K-3 II, DA* 16-50, F8, 1/200, ISO 100.
 IVersion 2020  Version 2016 |
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
04-30-2020, 07:20 AM
|
| |
Helios 44K-4 on Pentax K-3 II.
1/320, F5,6 or F4, ISO100. Processed in DxO Photolab 3.
Under bright sunlight the lens producessomewhat muted colours, but I decided to keep the image as close to the "original" as possible.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
04-03-2020, 06:14 AM
|
| |
Parnidžio Kopa / Dune, Curonian Spit, Lithuania.
Pentax K-3 II with Vivitar 24-70mm f/3.8-4.8 Series 1 @70mm F7.1 1/320 ISO 100, processed in DxO Photolab 3. Notice the two lonely figures at the bottom.
It was a very sunny day and as you see, the lens struggles producing vivid colours and contrast. But strangely it suits the scene. I created several versions of this shot, and finally settled on this. It was hard to find the right balance between too much contrast and not enough contrast. Besides I thought that slightly low contrast and muted colours would suit the scene really well. In attempts to address the problems with colours and contrast, I made a black and white version of this shot.
Parnidžio Kopa / Dune, Curonian Spit, Lithuania. B&W version.
B&W conversion using DxO FilmPack 5, Fuji Neopan 1600 preset.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
01-22-2020, 10:29 AM
|
| |
Pentax K-3 II, SMC Pentax-DA 35mm F2.8 Macro Limited, F16, 4 Seconds.
Focus stacking 4 images, each of them was shot using pixel-shift.
|
|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
09-11-2016, 09:25 AM
|
| |
Pentax P-3 ; SMC FA-50 F1.4 and SMC A-70-210 F4, Fuji Provia 100F. Developed by The DarkRoom Labs. Click on preview images to see them in full size on flickr.
 |
|
Forum: Pentax K-01
03-19-2015, 03:20 AM
|
| |
 SMC A 50 mm F 2
 SMC DA 35 Macro Limited
|
|
Forum: Photographic Technique
11-21-2018, 03:00 PM
|
| |
During this summer vacation I made a stop in Kaunas, Lithuania. With me I had a book dedicated to the architecture of this city. I had an intention of repeating some photos found in the book. The widest lens I have is Sigma 18-35 Art and I use K-3 II. Frequently it was not wide enough.
I found one building which I wanted to photograph and decided to make a panoramic image. For the sake of experiment I decided to change my view point, instead of spinning around my vertical axis to the left and to the right. The area in front of the building was paved in plates. I found the centre of the building, made one horizontal shot and marked the spot with a stone. I made an equal amount of steps to the left and then to the right along the same imaginary line and took two more horizontal shots. Shots were take using live view with electronic level turned on. I counted the number of plates on the ground, when I was moving to the either side, to keep the distance from the centre as equal as possible.
I tried stitching the resulting image in Auto Pano Giga 4. For some reason, despite all the variations in settings, it failed to produce correct results. I decided to try the good old Photoshop CS6 and to my surprise it produced a really good result.
 Sport University, Kaunas. Panorama. |
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
11-29-2018, 05:05 AM
|
| |
Mounted on K-3 II @18mm, F1.8 1/800, ISO 100.Processed in DxO Photolab using DxO Film Pack and Agfa Scala 200X preset.
Talllinn, Estonia.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
11-16-2018, 07:31 AM
|
| |
Mounted on K-3 II @35mm, F1.8, 1/60, ISO 400
 |
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
06-26-2018, 03:15 PM
|
| |
Same scene as in my previous post, 8 years later and with different kit. Pentax K-3 II, Sigma 18-35 Art @18mm, F9, 1/80, ISO 100. I tried to frame it as close to the original as possible. Combination of K20D and DA* 16-50, produced slightly more vivid colours, but again the lighting was different, so might not be the most fair comparison.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
06-21-2018, 04:53 AM
|
| |
Pentax K20D, DA* 16-50mm F2.8 @ 18mm, F9, 1/50, ISO 200. June 2010, Tallinn. Reworked from the original RAW file in June 2018. Working with the original raw files is like entering the time machine.
At that time I was passing this place every time I went back home from work. I documented several stages of demolition of the building in the background. It used to be the academy of arts. Accidentally I noticed that a statue could spice up the otherwise boring scene. Cross posted from the facebook group Pentaxians.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
06-18-2018, 02:03 PM
|
| |
Pentax K-01, DA* 16-50mm @16mm, F7.1, 1/50, ISO400.
Sunset over Mariehamn, Åland
Shot during the summer vacation in 2013. Finland, Åland islands, Mariehamn. Reworked in 2018, using DxO Photolab specifically for the monthly contest. Cross-posted from the monthly contest forum.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
03-10-2018, 04:01 PM
|
| |
Pentax K-3 II, DA* 60-250 @ 60mm, F8, 6 seconds, ISO 100 Tripod. Processed in DxO Photolab.
Narva castle, Estonia.
---------- Post added 03-11-18 at 01:04 AM ----------
@Designosophy, I had a lot of issues with DA* 16-50, including decenterring. On having it fixed, I sold it, because it had been collecting dust ever since I acquired Sigma 18-35 F1.8 art.
|
|
Forum: Digital Processing, Software, and Printing
03-21-2018, 07:22 AM
|
| |
Pentax K-3 II, Sigma 18-35 mm F1.8 Art @ 18mm, F6.3 1/640.
Ruins of a fortress. June 2017.
The final version of the image. Processed in DxO Photolab.
- - -
Processed in DxO Optics Pro 10 in 2017, before I upgraded to the PhotoLab.
- - -
Processed in DxO Photolab. The only corrections are lens distortion, volume deformation and purple fringing.
The original image was deliberately underexposed, to preserve the highlights. In my experience RAW files from K-3 / II retain a lot of information in the shadows and in DxO software it is possible to process images so that both shadows and highlights look good. In case with this very file, the contrast between the bright and dark parts was too big. As seen in the version from 2017, I did manage to equalise exposure across the image, but it ended up looking flat.
Not long ago, I was experimenting with the auto mask feature in DxO Photolab and decided to find some challenging (in terms of post processing) images, that I could re-work. I chose this image, because I remember having spent a lot of time trying to "fix" it. Using auto mask I selected the sky and then I increased the overall exposure by 3 EV. As was expected I ended up with an overexposed sky, so I selected the mask I created earlier and reduced exposure by 2 EV. I added some contrast, made slight adjustments to the levels and smart lighting. The resulting image can be seen above.
To sum it up : K- 3 (II) and PhotoLab work really well together.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
03-04-2018, 10:28 AM
|
| |
Pentax K-20 D, DA* 16-50 @36mm, 1/40, F9, ISO 100. January 2010.
St. Paul's Church, Bray, Ireland. The image was completely reworked from the original raw file using DxO Photolab. Using automasks feature, I selectively darkened the sky. Back in the day, I was using SilkyPix DS Pro 3 and I was unable to fix the overexposed sky. Keeping the original RAW files helps.
|
|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
01-30-2018, 02:07 PM
|
| |
Kopli Lines, Tallinn in late autumn. Pentax P3, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Sigma High Speed Wide Angle 28mm, F5.6, 1/125. Scanned by MeinFilmLab. I slightly processed the original TIFF file in DxO Photolab to bring out more details in the foreground.
 29 by Roman Zaytsev, on Flickr
|
|
Forum: Pentax K-01
11-20-2017, 02:56 AM
|
| |
When the boats rest. Summer 2013, Åland islands. This shot is re-processed from the original RAW file a couple of days ago.
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
10-23-2016, 07:08 AM
|
| |
| |
|
Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
01-10-2018, 03:33 PM
|
| |
A friend of mine had an idea to do a photoshoot in one of the theatre's rooms. At first after seeing some pictures of that place, I was hesitant to accept the offer : the room is dimly lit and the lights are not particularly suitable for portrait photography. Finally I decided to take a risk.
Equipment used : Pentax K-3 II, SMC Pentax-FA 50mm F1.4, SMC Pentax-DA* 60-250mm F4 ED [IF] SDM, Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM (Art) and a tripod.
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 @ 18mm F4.0, 1/25, ISO 800. Handheld.
- - -
FA 50mm F1.4 @ F2.8 1/100, ISO 1600. Handheld.
- - - 
DA* 60-250mm F4 @ 75mm, F4, 1/80, ISO 800. Tripod.
- - -
DA* 60-250mm F4 @ 60mm, F4, 1/125, ISO 800. Tripod.
- - -
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 @ 28mm F1.8, 1/80, ISO 1600. Handheld.
* I had no control over the light. I could only ask model to change the pose or location, hence some shadows on the face. In certain cases it can be treated as a defect, but in this case, I would say that it adds volume to the shots.
* I tried to keep ISO as low as possible. Even with proper post processing, shots taken with ISO higher than 1600 do not look right to my eye. All images were underexposed to prevent blown out highlights and to keep shutter speeds reasonably "high".
Comments and criticism are welcome !
|
|
Forum: Photo Critique
12-24-2017, 06:56 AM
|
| |
The actual shutter speed is 1/100. The light was dim, so I decided not to make the shot brighter than it was in real life. It was shot using a slightly wider angle to maintain the correct perspective and later cropped in post processing. Click on the preview image to check it full size.
I am looking forward to opinions and suggestions.
|
|
Forum: Photo Critique
01-07-2018, 03:13 PM
|
| |
Here is a slightly re-worked version.
To answer some of the comments :
* This shot is a by-product of a book store / cafe visit. She found some interesting books and the one on the knees was waiting its turn. That's why she is not looking into the camera and it is the reason, why I decided not to crop it further. Of course she was aware that I was doing some shots and she wanted to have some, but she prioritized books, so in a way you can call it a candid shot, thus in my humble opinion, the set of criteria used to judge should be chosen accordingly.
* This was shot in RAW, so In the second version I re-worked the white balance, and adjusted the exposure on the book's "V". DxO PhotoLab allows to apply local adjustments and Smart Lighting tool can now be set to "spot weighted". I set her face as priority area for this tool.
Thank you for the opinions !
|
|
Forum: Lens Clubs
12-03-2017, 01:36 AM
|
| |
I always ask for permission to post the shots online if I know the person. This is roughly 99% of cases, because I do not do street portraits.
|
|
Forum: Film SLRs and Compact Film Cameras
11-21-2017, 03:02 PM
|
| |
Fuji Provia 100F.
FA 50mm F1.4 on Pentax P3 @ F5.6 1/250
FA 50mm F2.8 on Pentax P3 @ F2.8 1/250
A 70-210mm F4 on Pentax P3 @ 70mm F8 1/250
A 70-210mm F4 on Pentax P3 @ 70mm F8 1/250
Developed and scanned by [url=http://www.meinfilmlab.de]MeinFilmLab[/ur]. The scans came as 16bit TIFF files. I tweaked them a bit in DxO and converted to JPG.
|
