brand new Digital camera with autofocus and all the other modern bells and whistles. I have been using
the 43mm almost exclusively on the LX and MX up until and I agree if focuses manually quite nicely.
Shel Belinkoff wrote:
Hi Peter, Frank ...
I'd not noticed the softness in the eyes as the dark strip grabbed my attention, but you're right Frank ... the eyes are a bit of a problem here. Just a thought - and it'll work - sharpen each eye individually until they're both equally sharp to a satisfactory degree. I played with it a bit in PS, gave it a little crop, and voila - the true genius of the portrait becomes perfectly obvious.
Lose the autofocus, Peter ... not needed at all on such a subject, and that 43mm focuses manually quite nicely.
Shel
[Original Message]
From: frank theriault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:13:33 -0500, Peter J. Alling
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
http://www.mindspring.com/~pjalling/PESO_--_tglitasr.html
In case anyone cares:
Pentax *ist-D 1/30 sec (ISO -- 400) SMC Pentax FA 43ltd f1.9 @ f2.8 Autofocus (Autofocus sucks no matter how good the camera IMHO).
I gotta agree with Shel; that dark stripe down the right side is a needless distraction. I was going to wonder aloud (or however one wonders on a keyboard) if maybe you focused on the wrong eye - her left eye (the one on the right of the frame) seems just a tad soft, but I think that's the one which should be sharpest (since it's closest to the camera, no?). Then, I noticed that you autofocused, so that's (likely) that.
Well, here I am, starting off with negative stuff, when really, it's a
lovely portrait. I like that she looks very relaxed and comfortable. There's something about the placement of her hand on the vertical
thing (is it a frame of some sort?) that I like - it seems rather
"unposed" and natural looking.
Overall a very nice photo. Can't do anything about the softness, but
you can crop. I think it would be a better photo if you did.
--
I can understand why mankind hasn't given up war. During a war you get to drive tanks through the sides of buildings and shoot foreigners - two things that are usually frowned on during peacetime.
--P.J. O'Rourke
