Image tone setting on K10D

Hi

I have just purchased a K10D Grand Prix edition and am enjoying experimenting with it having upgraded from a muvh loved ist D.

I don't have the time or knowledge to spend hours editing and playing with my pictures once taken.

According to the K10 hand book the image tone settings available are natural and bright. Which should I select? It says that selecting 'bright' will, not surprisingly, give brighter pictures. As I don't do a lot of post shot tinkering, should I use this setting or leave on 'natural'. Any advise much appreciated.

Amer Khalil [/b]

Hi Amer and welcome to the board!

"Bright" is for printing straight from camera.
"Natural" is if you want to do post-processing.

If you might want to post-process, then you could also consider shooting RAW+JPG with the "Bright" option. You can then print directly from the JPG or edit as much as you want from the RAW (but you'll get fewer shots on a card).

Hope that helps!
Matt

I always advocate setting the camera to RAW mode with a default setting which produces pleasing results most of the time.

I find +1 contrast +1 saturation natural tone suites my tastes, but whatever combination produces results you like is good.

I say this because by doing it this way you can batch process most of your images in the Pentax Lab software without sacrificing the option to play with the RAW to your hearts content if the need should arise.

These settings actually have no effect on the RAW image, only the embedded JPG file which is what is shown on the cameras LCD screen.

If you shoot anly RAW, you can set them to whatever you like, the RAW image is exactly the same because the RAW data is 'captured' prior to any in-camera processing.

not 100% correct,

the RAW image itself is unaffected it is true, but it does contain the data of what the camera was set to. You may notice I refer to using the Pentax Lab software specifically and not SilkyPix or any other RAW processor.

The Pentax Lab software picks up the camera settings from the RAW file and will default to processing the file as it would have been processed by the Camera.

The defaults are saved to the RAW file as just that, defaults which you can change or not as you see fit.


The above does work, it's the way I used to work when I ran Windows and it's the only thing I miss using UFRAW under Linux vs PentaxLab under Windows.

Interesting stuff. I didn't know that, I don't use the Pentax software. Thanks for the info.

Thank you all for your very helpful comments. Will keep an eye on this forum here on

Many thanks

Amer Khalil

I frankly don't see much difference between RAW and JPEG using the K10D.

Tried both and am sticking with JPEG. The test shots I posted recently, taken at a car show are a case in point. All JPEGS.

I have read many negative comments about this camera on forums and reviews concerning the ability to get good JPEGS straight out of the camera. The only post adjustment I have made so far is a little bit of extra sharpness.

Obviously RAW has it's place for many photographers, it's just not for me with the K10D.

RG.

I agree with you. I have always used JPEG capture, apart from making tests to see what RAW capture might offer.

My conclusion was that for the purpose required (A3 exhibition prints) JPEG was absolutely fine.

no problem. We are all learning, and of course if you don't use the Pentax software it's something you'd never notice.


with regards to the difference between RAW and JPEG, I agree the difference is pretty academic in a lot of cases, and if all the settings on the camera are spot on then the JPEG will be very good. The K10D is quite capable of producing exhibition quality A3s in JPEG mode, as our own John Riley is so adept at proving.

I'm just a little bit slow, I like to concentrate on composition, shutter speed, dof etc when I'm in the field and leave such things as white balance until later

One major advantage of saving in RAW format is the latitude offered for post-production correction of levels.

When you shoot in perfect conditions, as in the case of your cars, this isn't a big deal but when you have sharp contrasts or extremes of light, the extra scope for fixing pictures on the computer is extremely valuable.

Lenscape.

Good point.

Must say I take lot's of images in sometimes very difficult conditions.
Fire, Smoke, Water, Dirt and very bad light. I have yet to find I need to use Raw and I am pretty fussy about my images.

I guess whatever floats ones boat.

RG.

Lenscape.

Here are a few of the kind of images I get to take for our my fire department. I shot almost 400 images at this event. Using Raw would also be way too time consuming for me.

These were taken with a KM 7D or A-2. Have not used my K10D for anything serious yet, as I need a couple more lenses and need to be 200% sure I am ok with the camera. I have to work pretty fast to capture many of the shots.








RG.

Am I right in thinking there is a lot of wooden construction in these houses?

If so, they must burn up pretty fast?

John.

Yes, all wood. 1890's built Farmhouse. Took a long time to burn down due to very heavy timbers used in the construction.

Most of the houses out West are still built using wood, some are now being built using steel framing.

Oregon homes are generally built with concrete footings (foundations) with wood floors, particle board or plywood over wood framing (2x6) and then some kind of siding, mostly a type of man made planking. Sometimes thin brick or rock is included on the front part of the house as a facing.

We have too many earthquakes out west to be able to build homes with brick. The wood structures don't seem to do that bad. we were in two major S California earthquakes. The first split the roof wide open. It did no damage to the second house mostly due to the houses being built on bedrock in that area. (Sylmar & Northridge Quakes)

RG.