Lack of brilliance

A relatively new user of *istD. Took some photographs today on N Norfolk coast. Looking towards south from sea with sun approximately in the SE, time 11ish. Using UV filter and AV stopped to f8-f11 and using lens hood.

When displaying on computer photo appreared very hazy but using Picassa 2 for tuning automatically them there was a great movement of the highlight slider to display a far better result.

Assume my basic camera settings must be at fault! Have you any pointers as to what I may be doing wrong?

Thanks

Max,

Without seeing the original image, I couldn't really comment
Feel free to email it to my hotmail account, and I'll comment!

In general I find the *ist-D to be very accurate with exposure, but then I always shoot RAW, and that helps iron out most complex exposure issues.

Matt

To get the best results, you should assume that every image you take will benefit from some adjustments on the computer.

George

I rarely use anything but RAW (old darkroom hound) but the couple of times I used jpeg, it looked just fine. I like the fact that Pentax has decided not to oversharpen the jpegs, you can do a better job with less artifacts in Photoshop.

But since I'm used to taking a photo, then processing the result, it seems natural to me that images straight out of the camera need some work. Using RAW with Adobe's converter brings back the control I had in the darkroom!

I too use Picassa and I find that the majority of shots (JPEG and RAW) from my DL benefit from the single click sharpen and a touch of brightening.
We're only talking mere tweaks here, the auto tuning is way too much - the DL actually does a very good job by itself.

Having said that, I like sharp but natural looking images and your preference might be for more saturated colours etc. for added impact.

You could try a still-life subject and then compare the actual object with the before and after images on the pc.
If the unfixed image is dramatically different to the real life object, then allowing for the monitor settings etc., there may possibly be a fault within the camera.

Do you have access to a second camera in order to assess performance differences?

I have noticed that uppng the Saturation and Sharpening to the highest levels helps when I am shooting JPEGs.

RAW is definitely more flexible.