On Jul 7, 2010, at 8:32 AM, Boris Liberman wrote: > Reply interspersed... > > On 7/6/2010 11:06 AM, Larry Colen wrote: >> There is some truth to this. If I'm shooting static scenes, in good >> light, I don't tend to take quite so many frames. If I'm shooting a >> static scene in challenging light, I'll bracket the hell out of it in >> 3 dimensions (ISO, shutter speed, AND aperture), partly to make sure >> that I get the shot, and partly in the hopes that I'll learn what >> works with that camera in that situation. > > Hmmm, I should say that this does seem not entirely logical to me. I kind of > have in mind an idea how I'd like it to look and set my mind and camera > accordingly. I rarely do many takes in the cases you described above. > > What I do "bracket" is composition - vertical, horizontal, different angles > of view, etc...
At least until I learn a camera, I don't know whether I'm better off with a long exposure at a low ISO, or a short exposure with a high ISO. With my K20 it turns out that I got my best star photos at ISO 400 at 15-30 seconds. I figured that out by bracketing ISO, shutter speed and aperture. >> > > Yes, when light is low (talking from first hand experience yesterday) K-7 AF > becomes unbearably slow for action shooting. Well, perhaps you could see if > you have proper gear for using it in manual focus mode properly. I don't have > many problems (up until certain degree of darkness of course) with A 50/1.2 > and KE screen on my K-7. But then when it becomes darker than my own > threshold it irks heck out of me. I've got a katzeye, which is about as good as you can get for manual focus. You just have to be able to see where the split screen is, and find a line for it to cross, which is challenging i the dark. > > >> When I'm photographing people (portrait sessions and such) I just >> plain shoot a lot, because I just can't tell when someone's smile >> will work well on camera. I'd rather blow an extra $.25 worth of >> hard drive, than miss a shot. > > Well, for portrait sessions you usually control the light ;-). So I just have to worry about getting the smiles, and the focus right. Next time I'm shooting more than one person, I'll use a lot more light, and get more DoF. > >> That's not the problem. I'm just crappy at focusing quickly on moving >> objects in low light. I'd be happy to have software that would flag >> the photos where nothing is in focus. > > Although it does sound heretic, but perhaps going Nikon will be a good idea > as their AF is said to be superior to that of Pentax. There are only about 2500 reasons that I don't already own a D700. >> > > It is never too late to improve one's skills... Especially given how > motivated you are. Last night I was working on being more careful about my focusing, and the results seem promising: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157624445835548/ Exposure under the red lights is still a challenge. The best results at JJ's seem to be quite a bit under what the camera thinks is nominal exposure. Then, if I white balance (as close as lightroom will go), the B&W conversion seems to work better too. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- 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.
