K10D day and night.

Right, I got my K10D a month ago and went on holiday with it. Still playing and experimenting and cannot get enough of it. I see pics on mags and internet that baffle me completely with originality and beauty. However, I will start learning...

4 pics here, first 3 are the same, my daughter 13 with the original picture on top, the other two touched with Paint.net (can't afford photoshop )

The bottom one, is inside of the church (of the local village where I lived). Nothing special, but I thought it is nice and considering taking it at 1/30 without a tripod or support, I must have steady hands or the shake reduction does work more than reviews claim. I know the pic is not central, but that was taken quickly after adjusting the exposure manually.

Any constructive criticism is very welcome...

"can't afford photoshop"

Use GIMP.. does the same (pretty much) and is completely free.

I'll post up links tomorrow, with a few hints and tips..

Cheers

Liam

Especially like the 'sepia' portrait, looks great.

Shake reduction does work - I took a shot with my 50mm lens at 1/3 second the other day and it was sharp.

Dan

You are very lucky to have a live-in model. The first pic, has it been processed at all?. It looks washed out to me, skin tones are not natural. The other two pics look very good.
The church shot is not straight and could do with a little anticlockwise rotation. Look at the two chandeliers. The one on the right is almost vertical, the one on the left is not.

Thanks for your comments, yes, the first picture is original. I purposely wanted it to be washed out... you know teenagers start looking for their defects in the face, such as acne... I think it hides them all.

The church one, as I said above needs straightening. I only put it to show what can be achieved in manual control.

GIMP... I got it... but my God, do I need tutorials? It is a very powerful program and I would like to learn how to handle it.

Hi Mediter,

I'm off out in about ten minutes, so the three basics that I employ for photos. These aren't to rescue a badd'n, that's another month of typing, but this'll just get the good ones a little better..

First, open the picture File | Open

then

Tools | Colour Tools | Levels

You'll see a histogram, the mountain range..

Underneath, there are three triangles.. one at each end, and one in the middle. You can drag these sideways. Take the one on the right, and drag it (if necessary) to the left, until it's under the last part of the "mountain". Again, if necessary, do the same with the left hand triangle, until it's just underneath the beginning of the "mountain".

Next, use the middle triangle to adjust the gamma (brightness), until happy.

Click OK.

Next, Tools | Colour Tools | Hue-Saturation

Change the bottom slider (Saturation) so that the figure reads 20. Adjust the slider above (Lightness) to suit your preferences.

Click OK.

Next, Filters | Enhance | Unsharp mask

Set the following values..

Radius 5.0

Amount 0.40

Threshold 0

Click OK.

This should give you a start on those three functions, and is enough to be going on with to print out your picture.

This is a very, very basic beginners guide, before someone starts..

There's much more you can do, but that'll crisp up your first images.

Hope that helps,

Cheers

Liam