Help

Hi,

Anyone have a K-50 that could give me some tips on best settings for portrait photography please? I used to have a K100D and to be honest I just used the Auto Pic function a lot, because it was set up beautifully and got fantastic images, my K-50 isn't doing that :/ I know I need to learn the camera's software etc, but I'm extremely impatient, and don't really want to "go around the houses" when there may be a simple solution?

Thanks,
Sarah

Shoot portraits in Aperture Priority mode Sarah, AV on your K-50, and use a large aperture (a small f/stop number) so that your subject is the star of the show and isn’t overwhelmed by the background.

You don't say which lens you will be using, but if it is the kit lens, then keep the f/stop at 3.5.

One final tip position the auto-focus point over the eye closest to the camera. If the eyes are in focus, the entire picture appears to be in focus.

Good luck and hope this helps,

Thanks for that Andrew, I'm using 18-55 (which I presume is the kit lens) however I do have an old smc PENTAX-A 50mm 1:2 , not sure if that would be better? and I have a 50-200 as well. I will adjust my settings, thanks again for your help

Sarah

Also, your K50 has a 'Scene' mode (SCN on the top mode dial) . Set this and you see a whole range of 'scene' settings options on the rear screen. There will be a 'portrait' option here, so select that. This may in fact give very similar results to Andrew's Av mode suggestion, but they are both worth a try. I'd shoot some photos using both options and see which one you prefer using the most, and which gave the best look.

With the SCN choice (and portrait chosen) you don't need to choose aperture yourself, the camera will pick the appropriate settings.

The A 50mm 1:2 will be perfect for portraits Sarah.

Thanks McGregNi, I really need to get to grips with the software.

Andrew - perfect

Sarah