Glen, you have inadvertantly broken rule number 1. WW ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Blakely" Subject: Re: Disappointing Results
> Howdy! > > Regarding number 2: What you "see" in the view finder (or without a > camera > for that matter) is NOT what's there. When you look at a real world > object, > you are perceiving it through what is possibly the most sophisticated > visual > processing system ever produced on this earth! Not only will the iris > change > with the lighting conditions, it will change to adapt to the subject or > even > specific areas of a subject that you are interested in - and without the > mistakes that cameras make trying to guess what you are interested in. > Further, your brain processes the image to include filling in details that > you can't see in such a manner that you can't know that it's doing it. For > example, you have a blind spot in your eye where the optic bundle > converges > and turns inward to become the optic nerve - yet you are NEVER aware of > this > hole in your visual sensor (eye)! You have to trick your perception system > to demonstrate the existence of this hole in your visual loss! If that's > not > enough, your brain can, to some extent, adjust the apparent sensitivity of > your retina, and it can do it variably to the specific areas of interest > to > you! This does not happen with film. What's there is what you get. For > these > shots, you need to use fill flash. Doing this well is not a trivial mount > the flash an shoot job. One needs to know how to balance the light from > the > flash with the ambient light. > > Regarding 1 & 3, I shoot Pentax equipment mostly; I have no "N" stuff. > Therefore I cannot help. When I have questions regarding my other brands > of > photo equipment (Graflex, Argus, Sinar, etc.) I go to sites & lists > specific > to those brands or types. Personally, I wouldn't dream of discussing any > brand of equipment on a list devoted to different brand of equipment. It > just seems... impolite and mildly offensive to me. But then that's just > me. > Don't read too much into it. > > Regards, > Bob... > -------------------------------------------------------- > "Art is not a reflection of reality. it is the reality of a reflection." > -Jean Luc Godard > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Glen Tortorella" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >> Hi all, >> >> Since I have a new, more "advanced" body, the N80, I tried taking >> some shots I would have avoided in the past. The results were awful-- >> not one good shot on the entire role, a miserable 0-for-24 (Kodak >> Gold 200). >> >> In the past, I would avoid two types of shots: 1) indoor shots and 2) >> outdoor "high sun" shots in the fair weather months (i.e. during the >> hours of about 10:00-4:00). In doing so, I have assured myself >> decent, but not necessarily perfect, results. Since the N80 has a >> better metering system (10-segment) and a pop-up flash that is >> supposed to be pretty good, I figured: "let me see what it can do." >> As I have said, the results were dreadful. Here are the main issues. >> >> 1) Every indoor flash shot showed at least moderate spotlight/wash- >> out effect of the subject (people). >> 2) On the outdoor "high sun" shots, the camera turned a seemingly >> minor shadows (through the viewfinder) on the subject's face into a >> black blobs that covered almost all of the subject's face. >> 3) When taking indoor shots with the flash, I would meter (10- >> segment) something like 1/30 or 1/45 or perhaps 1/60 at, say, f2. >> With the flash powered up, I do not think it ever metered >> differently. For example, 1/30 at f/2 was still 1/30 at f/2 with the >> flash enabled. Is this correct, or is there something wrong with my >> camera? >> 4) The one decent shot in the whole role--an indoor shot using only >> available light...go figure?--was spoiled by some sort of small speck >> on the subject's face. I usually keep my filter free of dust, etc. >> Could this speck have appeared as a result of the cheap processing I >> used (Wal-Mart C-41)? >> >> I know that using a fill flash may have alleviated the problem >> expressed in issue number 2, but, since I have had my subjects turn a >> bit ghastly by using the flash, I am hesitant to use it indoors or >> outdoors. I would appreciate any advice or commentary (or even pep >> talk), as I am pretty down about this. What good is a more >> "advanced" camera if I cannot even come remotely close to >> satisfactory results on the more difficult shots (i.e. indoor, "high >> sun," etc.)? > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
