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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-23-2013, 10:39 AM
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I totally agree.
In the Pentax HC system, the minimum ISO is 200 so it can lower it to 100 during HC. You end up with the same thing as the Nikon that exposed and ISO100 and stopped down the aperture. You end up with the exact same exposure because they will also have the same aperture and shutter speed.
However, The difference I see though is that if HC is determined to NOT be necessary, then you necessarily have ISO200 instead of the preferred 100. In this case I can see where the OP might have a gripe.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-14-2013, 01:23 PM
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It seems clear that there is no blowout proof auto exposure out there. Given that, you might try manual mode.
A lot of people get the idea that because the light changes then they have to change the exposure but this is not necessarily true. (Similarly, they use auto white balance to compensate for indoor lights, etc. But you don't have to do this either.)
By setting your camera to daylight white balance and fixing the exposure manually, you will get WYSIWYG images, which is what you really want, right?
So for a stage play, you can be pretty sure that the lighting is controlled by the lighting director to be acceptable to all those dark adapted eyes in the audience. So there won't be massive amounts of variation. The main white spotlight will probably be a good baseline for the rest of the lighting.
The way I would handle this is to set daylight white balance and then manual exposure based on that white spotlight and keep that exposure throughout. (I'll bet this spotlight intensity is quite standard and unchanging too, so a setting could be used from one show to another, at least for starters.) When the scene changes to different colour lights or dimmer lights and different locations, then that is what the director had intended and if you keep your exposure fixed, you will get what the director intended. So your images will be WYSIWYG.
Also, you can easily change your manual setting with just a click of a wheel if need be on the fly.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-13-2013, 11:49 AM
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Everything I've found about active d-lighting indicates that it will adjust exposure by "up to 1 stop". This is not the same thing as preventing blowouts. It simply helps reduce blowouts. Its real intent is to compress the contrast of a scene so that more detail can be seen in both highlights and shadows. A lot of people like it and use it but they also complain that it increases noise in the shadow areas.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-12-2013, 02:03 PM
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I see your point. Yes, of course, if the exposure is changed, then the RAW file will be changed.
Lets say you had the feature you were looking for. You will still get plenty of photos that are not properly exposed. Because there is too much contrast in the scene. You will find that part or all of what you are interested in the scene is much darker than the highlight and unacceptably dark in the final image. Boosting the shadow in post processing may also be unacceptable because too much boost may be required and can result in a visible noise. The highlights have to be allowed to blow out in many cases. Spot, centre-weight and matrix metering help you tell the camera what is important in the scene and to set the exposure based on that area. To get a perfect image with no blowouts, you have to control the light as well. In the case of your bird shot, because of its white neck, you would have to catch it in a softer light like shade or overcast sky - or maybe catch it in a contrasting (colour-wise) but brighter background.
The point is, what you are asking for will not always solve your problem, so you will still be left with having to compensate in some way.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-12-2013, 10:23 AM
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The active D lighting feature only works on JPEG output. A lot of these features only work on JPEG output. So you give up the quality of the original RAW image and further deteriorate it with the digital shadow enhancement - this may be OK if the camera is very low noise and the enhancement is not too great.
I think someone said there is a mode that will prevent blown highlights that you can use - depends on your camera - mine doesn't have this and like you I've often wondered why not - I think its may have to do with the difficulty in discerning specular from diffuse highlights. When you import your photos in your computer, just hit auto enhance and the shadows will probably be boosted. And you can make further adjustments if you want before you go to the JPEG output or print.
Note that there are only 3 factors in setting exposure... ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed. These 3 settings are the only settings that determine what is output from the sensor - i.e. the RAW output. Everything else is digital manipulation.
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-12-2013, 08:50 AM
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I just tried it again to see make sure I didn't get my math wrong. Yes, I have to compensate by +1 EV. (Actually, I found it was best at +2/3 EV but I didn't want to get into details until now :)
The +1EV compensation is for a typical caucasian. If you are dark skinned, you may have to compensate in the other direction.. but most people have light coloured palms. So the compensation will be slightly different for each person but it will always be the same. Experiment and you will know where you lie in the Zone system! ;)
@wombat2go - "gbeaton , do you mean add or subtract.
I just tried that and it works well when I stop down by 1 stop eg move from f/11 to f/16."
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-12-2013, 08:33 AM
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Here's a neat trick I use sometimes if I want to set the exposure and keep it. I especially use this with my film camera which only has spot metering. This is good for shots where the lighting doesn't change, like outside on a sunny day or an overcast day or if the shots will be taken in the shade, etc...
The reason why this works is that you are "mimicking" an incident light meter and using its reading to set the exposure which is the best way to achieve proper exposure.
I put the camera in manual and use spot metering.. point it at my palm of my hand - placed in the light - and press the green exposure button. This fixes the manual exposure. I then add 1 EV to the exposure and voila! I have a perfect exposure setting.
The palm of my hand is 1 stop brighter than mid (18%) grey. So the camera's meter will fix the exposure 1 EV below proper exposure. This is why I add 1 EV to compensate.
You can try this with a grey card and you won't have to do any compensation but my hand is always with me and I don't have to carry the grey card around.
Give it a try. You won't have to worry about blown highlights ever again ;)
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Forum: Pentax K-30 & K-50
11-10-2013, 12:36 PM
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If you set your metering to use the full frame, it should limit highlight overexposure considerably. But remember, the exposure is determined based on the average exposure of the metered area - spot, centre-weighted or full-frame. I haven't seen a mode that will never blow the highlights - at least not on my cameras.
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