DSLR Delayed Remote Shooting

I had cause to shoot a series of group portraits recently, and I was in the group as well! When setting up I was thinking about how best to fire the shutter ... previously when using the remote with myself in the picture, I've just held the remote inconspiciously and fired in one shot mode - 'say cheese ... click' done. (I don't really say cheese :wink.

But I have found this can lead to unnatural results - both from the hand position where you try to disguise the remote and my own expression which can be rather forced due to concentrating more on firing the camera than just relaxing.

So when setting up the camera and taking test shots I saw the Drive Mode item for Remote Control with 3 second delay. I don't know if all our cameras have it - as well as the K7 I guess the K5 and probably K3 would, maybe some others also? I tried it out and was very impressed.

Whats the advantage? Well, you are still in the picture with the remote, you still press the remote from in front of the camera - but then the red light flashes and you get a 3 second delay ... this is time to comfortably put down the remote where it won't be seen and assume a relaxed pose for yourself. I found it good to use the natural rhythmn of a countdown to get people looking natural and enjoying it.

One other point about flash when doing this - (well, P-TTL flash at least) on the first press of the remote (to activate the delay) the pre-flash will fire ... then the main flash obviously fires with the shutter. This I also found helpful - the preflash summoned everyones attention and got them looking, and I could concentrate on encouraging a good smile at the right moment, so a helpful (although unintended) consequence of the technique.

No doubt many have experience of this, but I'm sure like me, many won't have thought of it before, so I wanted to share it and recommend trying it out. Just another way that the features and functions on our Pentax DSLRs can help us get great shots.

Yes the simple IR remote is quite powerful.

You can also set the unit to accept one pulse to start the bulb mode, and a second separate pulse to end it, thereby giving you the equivalent of a remote release cable mechanism for very little financial outlay.

Yes, thats right - I did use that last year when I was taking long night exposures at Canary Wharf ... I remember doing it years ago on film with a cable switch - it had a lock position to hold it down during the exposure. The Pentax remote is much more flexible - as you say you can click to open the shutter, then again to close (seems the most logical way to manage long exposures), or even set it that you have to hold the button down during the exposure (doesn't seem so logical due to the risk of your finger slipping and having to start again!).

So with all this plus the timer delay features we have got plenty to play with

The intervalometer function is a bonus also. There is much flexibility and capability on the Pentax bodies. Quite impressive actually.