morgan lee

To add to Justin's point:

 

If you do not have FastStone Image Viewer, <a href="http://www.faststone.org/">get it.</a> At least, I highly recommend it. It's free and it is an excellent "light table" to look at your RAW files and convert them as you please.

 

I found that getting this program early on in my use of the K10D eliminated the need to photograph in RAW and JPEG and just use RAW.

Yes.

Press Menu (upper left hand corner on the back)

 

With your directional pad, go to the Rec. Mode tab.

 

Scroll down to File Format. To the right you will have three choices: JPEG, RAW, and RAW+

 

Select RAW+ and your camera will produce both a RAW file and a JPEG file with each exposure.

Neat idea for a thread, Roger.

 

1) Be more gregarious and confident to put myself in situations where I will be able to take better and more interesting photographs. i.e. Don't just photograph an event, get behind the scenes, ask if I can photograph rehearsals etc. Don't just photograph an orange grove. Talk to the farmer and ask if I can photograph, say, his crew harvesting the oranges.

 

2) Really make friends with my K10D. I understand any single concept and can think about a couple of things at once while shooting a photograph but I need to work on instinctively considering every issue to get the best shot. Also, by this time next year, I hope my fingers are dancing across the different buttons on the camera body with the deft agility of a 13 year old pressing away at his X Box controller.

 

3) Learn more about the different equipment and what can be done with it. Continue to grow the contents of my kit bag.

 

4) Ditto on Samuel's previous number three. Alcohol should never be mixed with posting on a forum or shopping on E Bay.

Rose, as someone who is in the market for Pentax lenses, I appreciate you giving us a preliminary report. As someone who loves cats, I appreciate the subject matter. Papi looks like quite a character. Why do they always need to "help" with computer work?

 

As far as software, CS3 is great to learn on because it is the industry standard and includes darn near everything but I think you will find out in the future you will not need something as pricey for what you specifically want to do with your photographs. Especially if you are only wanting to tweak them. There are lots of great picture editors for 1/3rd the price or even less.

*Coughs nervously and blushes*

 

I'm the original guy who thought that video on a DSLR sounded "cheesy". That was before I, and people who followed my post were b-slapped as a group for not knowing what we were talking about with video by Matthew McManamey. I'm still glad I made the statement just because, as a result, Matthew gave an awesome mini-lesson on 3CCD sensors in a video camera for RGB and why a SLR may want to develop this technology for their system to increase frame rate.

 

I did not make the connection at the time, but after Matthew made his post, I thought of the Red One. It is a nine pound movie camera that can shoot 60fps at 12 megapixel quality.

 

http://www.red.com/cameras

 

It makes perfect sense that a SLR company would move their camera development in this direction and is actually an exciting possibility.

 

I absolutely love my K10D and the Pentax brand. I did not mean to denounce the K20D before its real specs were out.

 

Sorry to hijack your post, Maurizio, but I wanted to respond to Lindy's, "And everyone who knows about video in this forum convinced me the K20D is cheesy: Shot down before the official announcement." Since I started that digression in the discussion and should not have done so in such a crass manner.

 

~Morgan

Nice. I grew up in upstate New York and these shots gave me a vivid flashback to the absolute quiet a blanket of snow makes it out in the country. There's no quiet quite like it. It really clears your head.

You captured that very well.

I especially like Caretaker Cabin.

Markus,

 

WOAH!!!!

 

As someone who makes his living in the film and themed entertainment industry, I would NEVER say that video is not art!!!

 

What I (I sincerely thought clearly) stated is that Video is NOT Phohtography.

 

I was simply stating that from a company that, on this forum, prides itself in being the "poor man's Leica" touting a camera that includes video is a step down in their stalwart commitment to quality.

O. K. Peolple are bringing up this video capability and, I suspect I am way in the minority on this but I have to ask: Am I the only one that thinks that video capability on a DSLR is cheesey?

 

 

I don't think I'm a snob. I know a lot of people who are really into their point and shoots and firmly believe they can legitimately call themselves artists and photographers.

 

 

Heck, one of my favorite photographs of all time was taken on a cell phone.

 

 

Still, whatever the release price on the K20D is, I would have rather seen them meet that price point with more money put into another fps or a sturdier interior to be rated for more shots with more solid cogs and springs, faster AF, higher MP etc. Anything instead of making it capable to shoot video.

 

Am I the only one? I know I am in one of the last American households to not have cable/satelite television but am I really that weird to think that photography is a craft/art completely separate from video?

 

It just strikes me as a "Ginsu Knife" marketing mentality instead of a serious tool for photographers: "It slices, it dices! How much would YOU pay for this camera!...."

"31mm ?"

 

LOL! Justin, I can not believe you dignified that with a response. You're too kind. Of course you know I was completely kidding about my previous post in response to your tallies of how many times the same question is asked over and over.

I will be in the market for purchasing a razor-sharp lens for landscape and architecture photography and your statement gives me a nice launching point to research which one I'd like so, uh, thanks for the answer to my joke and saving me the rigors of looking 17 posts down.

As for Wiki, anything to streamline searching for topics would be awesome but I DO like the individual attention you can get with a question on a forum. Photography is an art, after all, and there are lots of varied situations and different approaches to them and, for someone trying something or looking to add a new piece of equipment to their r'epertoire, this forum is invaluable.

Thank you Steve for giving me a shove in the right direction with Photo.Net etiquette on how to post to get help on this forum. Thank you to Pete for giving me a shove in the right direction on the clone brush.

Now to deal with that bubble right beneath the nose...<div></div>

So? Don't keep me in suspense: Is the 31mm worth $900 or not?

Ah, O. K. I think I've got it. I was on the right track. Just being way too heavy-handed and gouging big blue and blurry trails in the photo. Thank you again and good luck with your PHD thingie and all your artistic pursuits.

 

~Morgan

Wow, Pete! That was quick!

How, exactly, did you DO that?

By the way, I always like to take a look at people's portfolios and I love yours. Looking at a lot of Photo.net's photograph of the week-type shots, though many are beautiful, I get Photoshopped out pretty quickly. I really like the authenticity of your photographs and the young and hungry look of your work. You have a great eye for composition and visual flow.

Happy shooting in the future. I'll be watching your work from now on.

Awesome! This is a 10.1 MP version converted straight from the RAW file to JPEG. Thank you to who ever can take the time to educate me on this.

~Morgan<div></div>

Last weekend I photographed Mermaids in a performance at a classic Florida

tourist attraction called Weeki Wachee. I love the composition of this shot

with the bubble halo and the performers expression but, especially after adding

a little more light and sharpness, I would really like to tone down or get rid

of the bright-white with bright blue highlight bubble directly in front of her

chin and the bright blue (noise) above the bubbles directly to her right

(viewer's left).

I have been having a devil of a time with the clone brush since the bubble is

right on the shadows of her jaw line.

I'm using Corel Paint Shop Pro XI which should be comparable to Adobe PhotoShop

with a lot of the basics (Clone Brush, Layers etc.)

Any advice on how to fix the burned-out bubbles is greatly appreciated.<div></div>

A few months ago, a recurring topic on this forum was what would happen to Pentax once they merge with Hoya? I really wasn't too worried but, still, it's nice to have confirmation that Pentax will be releasing another K Mount camera which (I should hope) means they will continue to develop K Mount lenses for my K10D. Plus, I will have a nice camera body to purchase when I either want a second body or am ready to move up that will fit the K Mount lenses and equipment I have bought and will buy in the near future.

As someone whose first DSLR was the Pentax K10D, this all makes me happy regardless of a few hundred dollars in price one way or the other on the release date of their latest camera.

Great shots, Matthew. I always enjoyed playing with the ferrets in any bin they are in in a pet store. They seemed to have a very good instinct for 'play' biting. They also have great personalities which are really brought out in these shots. I love Ransom poking out of the camera bag.

Oh, and, uh, my bet is that, though the moose would get a better start in the first half, the polar bear would catch up on the turn-around at the far end of the pool and win the race.

Ammended: in the previous post I meant, "Nice shot, TOM. Sorry.

Nice shot, Markus. Reading all of these responses made me realize several things:

 

1)Photography (at least what I would like to do with it) is not just a camera and a choice of lens. I have a lot of gear added to my shopping list now and an even longer list of books to read on things like Lighting and Flash Photography.

2) Location, location, location. As true for photography as it is for real estate, this one has bit me before: If your'e going to shoot an event, at least get there early and sit in the front row. Preferably, do MORE than that and make friends at the location which leads me to number three:

3) My two New Years resolutions are A) Visit as many unique locations in Florida as possible and photograph them well and B) Work on what I am beginning to think can be the most important "equipment" in a photographer's inventory: my personality. If I were more gregarious at Weeki Wachee, I could have explained how I am out to photograph and promote the "real" Florida and probably gotten nice portraits of mermaids and photograph opportunities not usually given to a regular "guest" of the park.

4) An oldie but a goodie in the digital-photographer's bag of tricks, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade: when a shoot hands you foggy, bleached, photos, turn them into art.

 

I got beautiful people underwater performing a great show and will post the results soon on:

www.realfloridaphoto.com

 

Jennifer, my wife, was shooting with the Pentax Optio T30 and this shot (wider than I could shoot with my 50-200mm lens) illustrates what conditions I was shooting under. Hope this helps explain my dilemma and thank you all again for your input.<div></div>

Markus: I have not used a polarizing filter. Would that cut down on the glare on the bubbles and the highlights? I'll have to get one anyway. Shooting in Florida gives me a lot of bleached-out skies. As for relflection off the glass of the viewing window, it was in ideal circumstances. The theatre itself is dark while the performers were in direct sunlight. I could not be directly next to the glass because we were seated in an auditorium and this was an actual performance. Also, flash was not allowed.

 

Michael: Sorry about the annoyance of the bra.

 

Dave: LOL! As soon as you said that I had a vivid mental image of a little bra icon planted with the other Photo Shop tools right near the red eye icon.

 

Matthew: Thank you for taking the time to play with my photo. I was heading in that direction and have already done a few in the series in black and white. Fortunately a lot of them have those slanted rays of sunlight that beg to be brought out with B&W processing.

 

Thank you all for your responses and ideas.

~Morgan

Darn it Michael! You're right. Weeki Wachee completely missed their target audience. Unfortunately, the no-bra version will set you back about $15,000.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/fashion/06mermaids.html?pagewanted=print

P.S. Photographed on K10D with 50-200mm pentax AFZoom lens at f4.5 ISO 100 Focal Length 115mm Exposure 1/180th second.

Last weekend I went to Weeki Watchee to take photographs for my web site,

www.realfloridaphoto.com

 

Though I got several photos I like regarding composition, I was frustrated by

the exposure and color. My question is, "how would you have taken this

photograph?" It was taken sixteen feet undergound through very-thick glass

looking at performers in a natural spring that feeds/creates the Weeki Wachee

river (so, yes, the fish is just a fish hanging out, not part of the show).

I presume this question is basically, "how would you photograph subjects in an

aquarium lit by natural sunlight?"

Any input from what lens you would use to exposure settings and the myriad of

other options on the K10D are greatly appreciated.

 

~Morgan<div></div>

The first consultation for many lawyers would be free. The first step any attorney would take is to send out a formal "Cease and Desist" letter. I would highly recommend seeing a lawyer to see how much it would cost to get that far in the process. It is likely a lot less than she fears it would be.

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