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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-18-2016, 12:34 AM
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Pretend that your DLSR is a film camera and try to get 10 great pictures out of 24. This focuses you think about each shot as you have limited number of them and you will try to make each photo matter.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-17-2016, 03:05 PM
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To take superb macro images (on the cheap) of small insects, flowers etc just attach a Raynox DCR-250 2.5x Super Macro Conversion Lens to the front of your 18-55mm basic lens. With this setup you get much more depth of field than with a macro lens. Zoom back a bit from 55mm and get even more depth of field.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-17-2016, 05:47 AM
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As someone who is new to close-up and macro photography I find that when photographing flowers and plants, there's an added level of interest when capturing them after a thunderstorm or an early morning dew.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-16-2016, 04:17 PM
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Outdoors and when photographing landscapes in particular always look for an alternate viewpoint. Invariably, when seeing a scene for the first time, you are not in the best position. Walk around in the scene, position your tripod in a few different places. Adjust your composition, especially the relationship between foreground elements and the background.You will often be pleasantly surprised by the difference on or two metres can make.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-16-2016, 07:35 AM
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I have two tips that I consider to be the most useful:
(1) Get the shot regardless of ISO, and deal with the noise later
Shutter speed and aperture are both essential technical and creative elements in capturing a subject or scene in the way you intended. If the shutter is too slow, you can't freeze a subject's movement or control the amount of motion blur, and you may risk camera-shake-induced blur into the bargain. If the aperture is too wide, you may lose the required depth of field to keep certain areas of your image sharp enough, or you might find the lens is operating outside its optimal performance limits (especially wide open). All too often, we photographers reduce our shutter speed or open up the aperture to let in more light, allowing us to keep the ISO low and avoid noise, but this is at the expense of our creative control over the captured image. My tip is to shoot with the optimal shutter speed and aperture relative to your subject and the effect you are trying to achieve, and accept whatever ISO is necessary to support that. Noise reduction facilities in freeware and paid applications (GIMP, Photoshop, Lightroom and Pentax's own Digital Camera Utility) have improved so much over the years; we can now shoot confidently at ISO 6400 or higher and achieve fantastic, low-noise results with just a tiny amount of post-processing (I have captured useable images right up to the K3's limit of ISO 51200). My point is, it is better to get the shot you wanted and have to deal with some noise (which can easily be remedied), than to compromise your creative control over that shot. Either shoot in TAv mode, setting the shutter speed and aperture as required and letting the camera decide on ISO, or shoot in M mode, setting the shutter speed and aperture *first*, then adjusting the ISO to obtain the correct exposure.
(2) Stop pixel-peeping!
We digital photographers have become obsessed with sharpness, detail and noise in our images. We view and edit our images at 100% reproduction on our high resolution computer monitors, and agonise over the slightest imperfections. But this isn't how others view our images, and it's not how we would look at someone else's images either. My tip is to stop pixel-peeping and accept that the equipment we use, and our techniques, have limitations. Many of our captured images will have numerous imperfections, but what's important is how the images look overall when viewed at a realistic size, from a realistic distance. If a photo looks good viewed at full-screen size from a couple of feet away, it really doesn't matter what you can see when viewing it in your image editor at 100%. If an image looks good at a realistic size, viewed from a realistic distance, it's a GOOD image, and it doesn't need another hour of effort in post-processing. Once you start to appreciate your images in this way, you'll get much greater enjoyment from your photography and the equipment you use.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-17-2016, 02:10 PM
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Good luck to all!
Hope I win and take more nature pictures, but not only static, like I can do with manual lens.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-15-2016, 09:03 PM
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"In art, there is more than one solution." At the 10,000+ foot summit of Haleakala (House of the Sun in Hawaiian) on Maui, my entire class went to the edge to shoot essentially the same sunset. As sunsets are common, my instinct was to get away from the crowd so I could shoot their silhouettes. We were above the vog layer (volcanic smog) and at altitude, got an unusual spectrum of color. Bonus tips: Use the "rule of thirds" and a dominant negative space. Pentax 645, Pentax SMC A 75mm, f/11 @ 1/250" on Kodak Ektar 100, EI 80, cropped square. |
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-15-2016, 06:23 PM
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Its getting nearly impossible to come up with advice that hasn't already been given, especially for a beginner like me!
When for some reason not out shooting, find some pictures online (or in a book) you really like, and try to reverse-engineer them: what makes it so special? Try to figure out what the photographer had to do to get the shot: where is he/she in relation to the subject, is any particular gear necessary for the shot, what kind of settings do you think you would have to use on your camera to get a similar shot. Then, if you have the opportunity, take your camera and see if your thoughts were correct by trying to make a photo with the same feel to it.
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-15-2016, 04:05 PM
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"..amateurs worry about equipment,
professionals worry about money,
masters worry about light,
I just take pictures..."
- Vernon Trent
My advice comes from my favorite quote above.
Stop worrying so much about the gear, the money, etc.
Get out there and shoot!
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Forum: Pentax Forums Giveaways
01-15-2016, 03:22 PM
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Buy at least one manual focus lens. Make it a prime. Several if you can find them cheap enough. No this is not a tip on LBA!:lol: Set your camera to manual and experiment. Use only the manual prime lens for a period of time like a day or a week. This set up will teach you the interactions of iso, aperture,focus and light like nothing else! Also using a prime instead of a zoom will get you to work the shot more instead of just relying on the mechanics of the lens. You could get a K1000 and do the same thing, but digital is instant!:D
Joel
P.S. Shooting manual can be great fun and a good way to advance your skills! Plus a way to justify lens purchases!;)
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