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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
04-29-2016, 07:11 AM
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I was shooting these guys again a week ago. It was my first time out on a paid gig to shoot action sports with 85mm manual focus lens in the kit - turned out surprisingly well. It paid off to pre-focus and make note of focus ring position to different marks down the field, then just anticipate the action entering a pre-set focus and shoot burst through it. I figured I'd not bet on the catch-in focus with f/1.4. Not sure I'm taking a MF lens with me again, but an AF 85mm f/1.4 goes to the shopping list for sure. Pretty nice DOF in the 85/1.4 shots I managed to focus properly - about 20-30 % of them. I had 3 bodies total, 85mm (which was MF), 70-200mm, and a 300mm. And learning from past experiences, this time I used the Sigma 70-200mm HSM II between f/3.2 and 3.5, which resulted in less smudgy mess than at f/2.8 - virtually none discarded due to it performing like the bottom of a half empty bottle of warm beer.
K-5 II with Samyang 85mm f/1.4:
K-S2 with DA*300mm f/4:
I ain't even mad the Sigma 70-200 HSM II focuses mid burst where the hell ever it wants to, for no particular reason whatsoever. It's still a good shot, and the one before and the next one are both sharp.. Okay I'm a little mad. But not much. K-3 with Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 HSM II:
K-3 with Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 HSM II:
K-S2 with DA*300mm f/4:
Show of good sportsmanship from the winning team, K-S2 with DA*300:
Total of nearly 350 pics to the client, who seemed happy.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
04-17-2015, 10:24 AM
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I think it'd be the more humane way...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
04-13-2015, 08:29 PM
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Quite a lot of PP. I shot all with TAv, auto ISO 100-3200, 1/1600-2000s, f/3.5-4, -0.7 EV. RAW to Lightroom, there quite a bit of fine tuning. WB is set to a slightly higher than it should be to give the warm atmosphere, added quite a bit of contrast, exposure +0,2-1,5, and a lot of shadows back to view. Sharpening 100 with mask 80, and a bit of noise reduction and vignetting. And of course everything's cropped to a 16:9 ratio.
Here's a 100 % crop of the PP, with the exception of the non-processed side cropped, and applied the same lens adjustment to match the distortion.
Pixel peep the full size image here (about 8 MB).
Edit: the slight difference in apparent brightness between that full size and this full hd size posted earlier is the post resize sharpening at export from LR, which I naturally skipped exporting them full size, and not sharpening in PS when exporting...
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
04-12-2015, 01:04 AM
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
04-11-2015, 02:10 PM
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I think I've found a new favorite "sport", something called buhurt.
Yes, it's exactly what it looks like - medieval re-enactment + UFC. That's right, full contact with swords, shields, and a lot of punching in the face. No it's not insane, it's way beyond that, and it's apparently very popular. Having witnessed an event, I can totally understand why.
Shot with K-3 + 70-200 HSM II. Had another K-5 with 16-50 but the action was too violent to be on the rails - or the front row for that matter. Moved up to the top row after a knight flew through the fence, to protect the gear (and my health as a bonus).
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
08-18-2014, 09:22 PM
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Thank you rawr for the insight, you're right. The thing I wanted to achieve with the 2.8 was indeed the narrow separation; I felt it was crucial the knight be clearly OOF in order for the picture to not be confusing, as I'm quite the distance away (that's at 145mm, slightly cropped frame) and too much depth of field would ruin the image if it wasn't immediately clear where they are located in space in relation to each other. In the lower image I went for the same effect, but to a much closer focus point (145mm also, I think this one is the uncropped frame), so I've stopped down to maintain some depth of field. The 70-200 HSM II suffers heavily at 2.8 shooting against the light; ii looks uneasy, there are aberrations everywhere, and all in all I had to throw away most of the f/2.8 frames. Stopped down even just a bit, things improve dramatically.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
08-18-2014, 09:37 AM
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Thanks! I changed settings a few times. I only wish the 70-200 would've pulled it through wide open; I missed a lot of shots trying to shoot f/2.8. Next time I won't go below f/4 with the 70-200 HSM II. Sad thing is, I already knew that I probably shouldn't unless the lack of light demands it, which it certainly didn't yesterday. I was at 1/1250-1/2000 most of the time.
The K-3 burst mode saved the day in the end.
I ain't even mad it looks as it does - the sword is right where it should (at f/2.8 above).
And here I'm in completely impossible angle to capture the action, yet the K-3 managed to slip a frame where there's a whole story there nonetheless. This must be one of my favorites from the shoot (at f/3.5 below).
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
08-17-2014, 10:29 AM
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It was this time of the year again. Took a 70-200 HSM II instead of the DA*300 I had last year. Mixed results, some good ones thanks to the shorter focal length, but a lot of missed frames - and I mean a lot. This is one of the good ones.
Oh, and positioned straight against the sun for a cool effect. Did not disappoint.
Edit: another one
Edit edit edit: j***** f**** c*****, comparing the DA*300 rendered images on a K-5 and these 70-200 pics at K-3, the conclusion must be that DA*300 consists of magic powder. I'll take that one again next year.
Edit: Well they didn't turn out all bad. Full set of 75 pics: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jiimaa/sets/72157646566791925/ |
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-14-2014, 01:32 AM
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Oh, you're right. I'm nothing of the sort - I'm doing it for fun, I've got all the time I need, and the game isn't being covered by anyone I think, me the least. :) Also I need the postprocessing to make them not suck. That's one big difference between me and a pro also.
Edit: in fact, one of the reasons I'm sticking with Pentax is I'm not losing hair over noise, like a Nikon shooter would... - i'll just let it noise, it's not that bad. :P
These pics have no extra noise reduction added.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-14-2014, 01:04 AM
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Thanks! Yes that's the game. The red team won 0-1.
No way these are straight out of camera. Who'd show pics straight out of camera. These are shot raw, processed in LR, and I've lately used a MIDI panel to do the adjustments 'blind' to get to a new (hopefully better) look. There's a ton of little adjustments, but most strongly added contrast, vibrance, and shadows, if I recall correctly.
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Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II
06-13-2014, 11:19 PM
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I went out to a soccer game for the first time ever. K-3 & DA*300
I ain't even mad 'we' lost - that wedgie is a good one. :D Well played by the enemy.
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