Engrossed...

My first posting here after a short intro in the welcome section.

I am new to Pentax and K5, and have the 18-55, and 55 1.4. I have been trying out the new 55mm on my ever willing subject...or not so willing!

Her attention was on the TV and was quite engrossed in the programme, so was sat nice and still in natural light. I am looking for help and advice re pp, tones etc and any general comments that will help get the best out of the lens and camera.

I am using jpeg and iphoto at the moment but may invest in Aperture and use RAW once I have my eye in and have mastered some basics.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/inamini/IMGP0277.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/inamini/IMGP0274.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/inamini/IMGP0276.jpg[/IMG]


...and in a lighter mood....


[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/inamini/IMGP0054.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks for looking

Nigel

I think the expression in #2 is absolutely great. Well captured, and good light.

I love the last shot. I would give it more bolder colour/contrast though

The last is very engaging, as Smeg has stated. Love the teeth - reminds me of our daughter at that age.

Thanks for the comments folks, I am particularly interested in the B&W pictures, and if the tones are acceptable. I will look at the last one again and see if I can improve on it.

edit. I had reduced the contrast in pp so returned it to ooc, and increased saturation a tad [not sure what measurement is used to express that , so tad will have to do for the moment!]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v425/inamini/IMGP0054-1.jpg[/IMG]

Many thanks

Nigel

I cant really say anything bad about any of these, they are all so engaging, and yes +1 for no teeth, though she's going to hate you for that especially when you show it to her first boyfriend

One thing I will say is watch your point of focus, it should be on the eyes and with the esception of the second pic I dont think you've quite nailed it, try a slightly smaller aperture for a bit more DoF, also try using centre point focus to lock on then recompose before pressing the shutter.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, I did use centre point focus and was experimenting on focusing on either the closest or furthest away eye to see what effect it would have on the overall image[and how acurate the focus is]. I deliberately used 1.4 or 1.8 for the first three, to see how narrow the dof was for the new lens. Also to make sure one eye was sharp and the other out of focus. Are you suggesting increasing the depth of field to have both eyes in focus?

From viewing these, I prefer the closer eye to be sharp, as in numbers 1 and 3, but as you said the sharpest was actually no.2

IMO there's no need to have both eye's in focus ( unless the subject is head on to the camera ) Just the prominent one. For example in shot #1 and #3 the left eye should be in focus. And in shot #2 the right eye

A wider DOF on those shots would spoil them IMO.


Bear in mind mind that the viewfinder can't resolve a DOF below about 2.8 or maybe 2.0 at the most soo it's difficult to manually focus at apertures like 1.4, and also why it's important to properly calibrate the AF of fast lenses

If in doubt use live view and magnify. The contrast AF i live view is much more accurate and you can manually focus well in this mode too

Also if in doubt take a few shots with slightly different focus settings as a bracket to catch any errors.


I have an f/1.2 lens and have to be careful of all of the above when using it. Not an easy beast to tame focus wise