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Forum: Photographic Technique
11-08-2014, 10:21 AM
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Maybe I should add some examples - they were posted before, but in many places on the Forum.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
11-08-2014, 12:47 AM
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I suppose all 6 MP Pentaxes can be used exactly as K 100D, but have no possibility to check this.
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Forum: Photographic Technique
11-07-2014, 11:54 PM
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I have really much fun doing landscape photos using my K100D in infra red. I saw some interest on the topic when I posted my IR images last days, so I’ll try to give some most important info on this. More exhaustive information on IR photography can be easily found on the internet.
Camera and filter
K100D works good for IR even without any kind of conversion or modification. You just need to buy the IR filter. I tested the one made by Hoya and it seems to be really good.
Proper lenses
For me older lenses are better compared to modern ones. The normal distance scale if off for the IR photography and the old lenses have markings for IR being usually red line/red dot below the distance scale. For some landscape shots it is usually good enough to put the infinity mark against this (an close down the aperture).
Lenses that I tested and are OK for IR are: SMC Pentax A - 50/1,7, SMC - Pentax M - 50/1,7, SMC - Pentax M - 40/2,8 and Rikenon 50/2 (the last one seems to have best contrast which is important for IR with K100D - you can expect quite high noise if you make strong image edition).
Some say that also kit lens (18-55) is a good one for infrared, but for my copy this is not true. It was possible to use AF with the kit lens, which was really handy, but I got some strange looking halo and softness effects on my photos. Moreover it seems to be the problem for many modern lenses which has complicated designs.
White balance
The only WB setting that works is manual WB. Before adjusting WB you have to set M mode and adjust shutter speed – 1/10 s should work, and aperture if the lens has no aperture ring. To adjust this you have to go to Fn – White Balance – Manual. Then you have to point K100D against grass or eventually any other vegetation. Just set smaller aperture and click “adjust” (and try as long as you have with other exposure settings if camera declares error).
I usually use one WB setting for many shots. Even if I forget to adjust this and use one from the previous day it works usually – at least for monochrome pictures.
Good subjects
Vegetation and sky look specially good in IR, so this is funny way to photograph some landscapes. What is also good the best time to make the IR photos is around noon – when the light is usually not cooperative for this type of shots.
But also modern architecture with some sky and vegetation works, this is the case of water also.
Expose “to the right”
I set shutter speed manually checking the results and the histogram on the LCD. I usually use ISO 400, however with plenty of light 200 would be better (noise is the problem while dynamic range is limited). It is possible to make some photos without tripod (but viewfinder is black) – you can try this with plenty of light at 1/10s an f 5,6. But typical exposure values are ¼ s – 1 s at f8. To get good quality results I tend to “exposure to the right” – the histogram graph should be on the right side (not in the middle) but without overexposing. Use RAW files!
Mentioned shutter speeds are for central part of the Europe. I would expect that even in Southern Europe this should be shorther, not mentioning Australia.
So, just put your camera on tripod, find the right subject, compose, put the IR filter and have fun!
Post processing
I have to say that I do not make really intensive post processing on most images. Maybe I’m too lazy, but I’m not trying to squeeze good RGB images from my RAW’s. I stick to monochrome versions.
For me It is usually enough to adjust the exposure, convert to monochrome and then adjust the contrast and “stretch” the histogram
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