Martins site » pentax

Raw from now on…

martin — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 17:29:57 +0000

I decided to make a little change in how I store my images from now on. Since I’ve been using using Lightroom 3 for some months now I see how good noise reduction can be applied, which makes me think about some old photos I deleted because I deemed them too noisy. So, from now on, I keep all my images in Raw format (which is native DNG in my Pentax), the filesizes in my case is somewhere between 13 and 20 MB, it’s not so much when you consider how big harddrives are today. It means something like 70-80 Gb per year at my current rate, so a 1Tb disk (which is about standard today for an external drive) would last me for more than 10 years! And, with raw I can always go back to the original image and fix things that I’ve learned later, as well as use new better software!

…oh, and by the way, I really like my new Tamron 70-200 2.8, it’s really superb, and ever so sharp. That and my 50mm 1.4 is what will always be in my photobag…

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HDR or not?

martin — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:06:01 +0000

A few days ago I tried my hands at shooting HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the first time. In essence what this means is that you try to compensate for the fact that with a camera you have to choose if you want detail in the shadows or in the highlights (such as clouds). How it works is that you set your camera up on a tripod, take an ordinary photo, then adjust the camera to make a darker exposure and then another adjustment to make a lighter exposure (and optionally two more photos even darker and lighter). It’s important you only adjust how long your exposure is, and that nothing else changes, such as focus or aperture (depth of field).

When you’ve shot the photos you end up with three photos of exactly the same scene (one normal, one dark and one light). The dark photo contains much more information in the lightest parts (such as clouds and bright objects like the sun or bright reflections in windows etc.), and the light photo contains much more information in the shadows and very dark saturated parts of the photo.

The magic happens when you combine the information from these three photos into a single image. Depending on which software you use you end up with a picture which usually has stronger, more saturated colours (sometimes a bit too much in my opinion).

In the example shown here you can see one normal exposure, and then the HDR-photo. For me personally HDR isn’t really so appealing yet, since I prefer shooting hand-held, which is out of the question when shooting HDR (you couldn’t manage to hold the camera still for making all three photos without any shake or movement), and I feel I can get almost the same effects from my ordinary photos using the adjustments and settings in Lightroom. There’s probably also something in me which prefers the way that non-HDR photos look and feel…

So, I’m not switching my photography to all HDR yet, mostly because I don’t usually bring a tripod, and I prefer shooting people and things which move, but, I’ll probably make more attempts at HDR in the future, in those situations where I shoot landscapes and plan ahead about what and how I will shoot…

Another attempt at film

martin — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:43:06 +0000

Yesterday I went back to the place I first tried film, and this time I brought the tripod. That made a huge difference! I still made one mistake though, I only brought my 18-55WR zoom (some light rain was happening and that lens is weatherproof), and I’m not happy about the optical quality of it (cheap kit-lens). I’ll go back again soon with the 50mm f1.4 and the 70-200 f2.8 and see which difference this makes…

Technical info; shot in the K-7′s maximum film resolution (1536×1024, 30fps), resized to 768×512 in AviDemux. Aperture F10.

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First attempt at film

martin — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:37:55 +0000

On the way home from a meeting of the local photo club I decided to make a left turn instead of right, since I had my photobag with me. I drove a few hundred meters and ended up at a local ancient monument. I walked around a little bit and snapped some photos. I also saw a little brook, and decided I would made a little attempt a filming with the K7. I recorded 4 short clips (at 720p, 30fps), all handheld, using the Tamron 70-200 f2.8, and stitched them together very roughly. Here (at youtube) is the result (I recommend watching it in 720p and full screen). The first few seconds are a bit messed up (due to the editing software I used).

I think I’m going to revisit that place, but this time with a tripod, other lenses (probably the 50mm F1.4 and 18-55mm) and longer continuous clip(s). I think I could really make something beautiful out of that.

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Brought the camera along for the dogwalk today…

martin — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 21:49:49 +0000

I usually don’t bring my camera when I take the dogs for a walk, but today I decided to try out the kit Pentax 18-55 on my K-7. For being a kit lens it’s actually not halve bad. It feels a bit more sturdy than the kit lens I got for my first Pentax, which was a 35-80, and it yields better photos. It’s also water-resistant, so I wouldn’t be too nervous about bringing it if I have to shoot somewhere in light rain… Here are some snaps (click on them to enlarge)…

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First real photos with the new lens and camera

martin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:13:01 +0000

Yesterday I was out in the forest just behind our house, taking the opportunity to really try out the new camera and lens. First impressions;

The K-7 feels a bit smaller in my hands, and gave my thumb a little bit of chafing at first, but that might have something to do with the weight of the lens
The K-7 has better response at high ISO. All the way up to 1600 is usable, so TAv-mode is a real possibility now. On the K10D I usually stuck with ISO 400 and Av-mode at a large aperture, now with the K-7 I set up at 1/200 and F2.8 or F8 and let the camera do the rest.
I really like the macro possibilities of the Tamron 70-200 f2.8, it is quite good. Although not a true macro I think it is actually more useful than a 90mm 1:1, since most of the things I will photograph isn’t very near, so to be able to use 200mm at just under a meter is quite nice.
The Tamron 70-200 is super sharp. None of the primes I have gets close to the resolution of it. I thought my Pentax 50mm F1.4 was quite good at 5.6, but the Tamron beats it hands down.
I’m not at all bothered about the AF-speed of the Tamron, as I thought I might be.

Without further ado, here are some of the photos (click on them to get a larger view);

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Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 on the way

martin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:25:56 +0000

I’ve just received confirmation that a spanking new Tamron 70-200 f2.8 is heading my way. I’m really looking forward to trying it out properly (I tried it out a bit at the fair, and got convinced enough to be sure I would like it).

I’ve never had a long lens with this large aperture and/or macro possibility, so I’m hoping it’s going to make an excellent combination with my K-7.

Photos and review is coming up as soon as I’ve gotten it and had a chance to snap some shots

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