big cats in connecticut ; 20 or 22

[davidhampshire]

ok,    tried to realize depth of field,  and at the same time get blurred background ,  and capture the local wildlife set;     so set 100wr on f2.8,   autofocus,  iso 320,   Av setting,   1/80th sec,   with -2 ev ( seems like with this lens dfa100wr,   that i have to have negative exposure compensation a lot ,  anyone else ?   )     ,      so ,    is the background too something or other?      not sure if i like these.     dave

[Ron Kruger]

Light was too low, shutter speed to slow, apature too narrow and exposure too dark, but I love the angle.

[davidhampshire]

 what should i have used for settings then,    and what do you mean by light too low.    but whew...  got the angle right  !     you guys are tough !   but i like that.

[davidhampshire]

i hate messing with photos,   but i adjusted brightness and contrast a little with paintshop .     that any better , ron?     i want to get this right when i click the shutter .    eventually.

[Ron Kruger]

No, I didn't mean playing computer games, but more light at time of capture. More light would have made it possible for you to stop down a bit for a little wider DOF and a higher shutter speed to cut down on the blurr. Good settings for this shot would have been about f-5.4 and at least 100 sec. You have a K5, so you can bump the ISO a bit to get these settings. If I have to shoot on overcast days, I try to fill with flash. Despite what most newbee, digital-age, computer game experts think, there is still no substitute for good light. Wait for it, chase it, learn to dance with it. And when you don't have it (too bright or too dim), fill with flash.

[davidhampshire]

ok,   thanks ron,     i do like light.   

[Pacerr]

Another learning/teaching tool in the box is whatever sort of "one-step auto-adjust-wizard" button you might have in your software. It's not always right, or even close, but it gives you a gross estimate of what the logical adjustments would look like IF they were right for that image. (Like a "light meter", it's seeking a mindless neutral grey norm devoid of any innovation or extenuating circumstances.)

The point of the exercise is that you will learn more in fifteen minutes screwing around with that option than I ever did with weeks of experimentation with film, dodging, burning and variable contrast paper (at great cost for a teenager incidentally   ) in the darkroom.

Look at the histogram and color balance of the original image, then ask the auto-wizard-of-neutral-greyness what it thinks and figure out what it was trying to accomplish -- and why you don't agree. (You don't HAVE to like an image just because it's technically RIGHT.)

When the auto-wizard seems to make no noticeable difference in your images you're beginning to get it very close to "right" in the camera for "normal" shots -- and you'll eventually learn why you may choose to do it differently with repeatable consistency.

The "auto-fixer-opinion" then becomes a sort of a gold . . . or mud? . . . standard you can use for consistent comparisons and developing your own personal style.

Remember, the guys that do this for a living often call the camera "Program-mode" the "Pro-mode" because that "middle-of-the-road" solution is a great point of departure for consistently picking a point from which to deviate if so desired. The same can be argued for the various auto-fix modes in software.

Try auto-fix-mode(s) on your cats. Might be gratifying an' it's always enlightening.

And occasionally return to your earlier 'best' images for a personal progress check too.

H2

[davidhampshire]

ok,   i will check that auto settings thing out,  pacerr,   in the past ,  i've not really liked any of those results,   but as you say,   maybe just for a check ;
i know there are two camps on processing,   for me,  it's ok when guys do that,  but i'd rather get a photo out of the camera,   so mostly use jpegs with a raw  backup,   think it's why i like the old lenses,  too.   i'll check out the auto adjust thing for a while though.

thanks,
dave

[Pacerr]

Let me re-emphasize -- the point isn't to achieve final processing of your images but to use a "predictable standard" for evaluating them. A standard doesn't have to be good, just useful and consistent. When your out-of-camera images result in little or no observable changes in auto mode, you have a predictable system for exposing for normal conditions even though you may not agree with the auto results.

A good example would be high (or low) key images that are consistently and predictably miss-auto-corrected indicating you've made the correct scenic adjustment at the time of exposure. It's like you've applied the correct Sunny Sixteen rules to adjust a beach or snow scene despite the apparent meter reading.

A quick and dirty trick is to batch process with Auto-correction applied and see if there's any surprise 'Easter-eggs' in the results. It's gratifying to hit the Auto button and know it's not going to "be right" and also to know WHY. (Eventually this does get boring, which means you're learning something I suppose.)

Confession: I get  auto-lazy too often lately and a day with manual everything, including no metering but instant histogram review, does wonders for remembering to pay attention to pre-shot EV corrections regardless of the exposure mode used -- or at least inflicting self-induced head-slaps when I fail to do so.

I've also got a Pentax Spotmeter (oh, how I wanted one of those when I couldn't afford one!) that I occasionally carry around just to see how close I can still come to correctly assessing a scene.

H2

[Ron Kruger]

I find auto exposure and auto WB on Pentax camera very accurate, and I've learned when I need to override them, and which way to go, in tricky light situations. Experience with light counts. I override them with the EV button
I use AV most of the time, because I want to control the DOF for various effects, but I also use P quite a bit, but not in the usual way. P mode gets a bad rap, because that and green mode is what people use for a mindless P&S approach, but with the front and rear dials, you can quickly adjust the apature and/or shutter speed the same way you might in AV or TV. No matter what I'm shooting, I always glace at the exposure/shutter speed combination before pressing the shutter. The last thing I adjust is the ISO, which always stays as low as possible.

[blackcloudbrew]

I shot using P mode for the first year I had my DSLR. It is a good way to go. The deal is with P mode is to decide which "program" P mode set for and used. I believe there is a normal mode, dof mode, speed mode, and a MTF mode (which tells the camera if it recognizes the lens to use it in manufactures best settings for that lens). What the program setting does is offer up the best exposure based on the program choice (actually this is also true for all other metering setting except for manual and bulb mode as I recall. P mode is a good quick system that works quite well. Like Ron though I shoot a great deal in Av mode as I want to control the DoF as much as possible and my program is set to DoF mode usually.

[blackcloudbrew]

I shot using P mode for the first year I had my DSLR. It is a good way to go. The deal is with P mode is to decide which "program" P mode set for and used. I believe there is a normal mode, dof mode, speed mode, and a MTF mode (which tells the camera if it recognizes the lens to use it in manufactures best settings for that lens). What the program setting does is offer up the best exposure based on the program choice (actually this is also true for all other metering setting except for manual and bulb mode as I recall. P mode is a good quick system that works quite well. Like Ron though I shoot a great deal in Av mode as I want to control the DoF as much as possible and my program is set to DoF mode usually.

[davidhampshire]

i have not grasped the significance ( of a lot of things,  but..)   of program mode yet,    and what should P mode be set for in the custom menu on the k-5 to take advantage of it?     

[blackcloudbrew]

Took me a while too. One way to understand it is in P mode see what the camera provides you with the exposure of the same scene with different program settings. It should work like this, when set for depth of field you should initially get a smaller f-stop (higher number) and have a slower shutter speed, when set for speed the opposite should be true. the other modes are a bit more complicated but that's how is should work.

[Pacerr]

Something very similar to this chart is found with every roll of consumer film.

It's often referred to as the "Sunny Sixteen Rule" citing the basic recommendation to set nearest shutter speed equal to ISO and use F16 in typical bright sunlight, etc, etc. Then there's the proviso that shutter speed and aperture are reciprocals such that F16 @ 1/125th/sec is the same as f11 @ 1/250th/sec, etc.

In essence, the Program Mode is nothing more than the camera software executing this basic exposure chart depending on how and what you choose to meter. The +/- EV shift provision simply tweaks the "program-line" just as you might do to compensate for an excessively bright, snowy or beach scene.

The Scene and Picture modes simply tweak the basic "program-line" in various ways to optimize the settings to favor high shutter speed (sports), depth of field (landscape), etc. With digital controls and AF, the tweaks may even include such things as nudging color casts, setting AF mode (AF-S or AF-C), saturation, sharpening, etc, to favor logical adjustments that a knowledgeable person might choose for a given type of scene.

It's unfortunate that the "purists/egotists" have bad-mouthed the auto program modes to the point that many folks feel reluctant or even embarrassed to explore them. Actually those modes are nothing more than the camera recording and storing settings that a competent photographer would consider a good start toward making satisfactory exposures. Efficient and knowledgeable photographers acknowledge that the auto modes can be useful tools. Those that insist on using manual, TV and AV modes exclusively are often just creatures of old habits that are too lazy, or befuddled by computer-talk, to figure out what the mode buttons actually do.

Think of them as the pre-set tuning buttons on your car radio -- a great convenience when you'd rather pay attention to "driving" than fine tuning the radio/camera dial. You just have to spend a little time noting what "stations" are assigned to which buttons so you can get smoooth, saxy jazz instead of C&W or hard rock. Or shortcuts to your favorite software programs.

The descriptions in the camera manuals adequately explain what tweaks are associated with the various modes if approached systematically and with a basic understanding of the ol' Sunny Sixteen rule as a point of departure.

H2