Hi All,

just bought Matt's user guide. I cannot wait to go out and flash everything that moves.

Thanks Matt. Your portfolio is beautiful - you are a technician and artist of great power!!!

Right spagbol to eat, kids to tell stories to and I might have a glass of wine!!

Bluewhistle

Thanks for all the advice gang. (Yeah I made you into a gang!)
What I would like to be able to do is take an ambient exposure and then know for certain that my flash aperture is the same as the ambient. So I have tried on auto because pttl seems the most temperamental thing. I dial in my flash aperture and by right this should illuminate the face and take away all shadows. But it doesn't. To get a lower ratio I dial in a wider aperture. Again I can't see the control.

Mannesty THanks Mannesty, where do you input this? On Camera. And do you do it for all shots or just flash?

All good stuff I have a lovely minolta meter so readings are easy. When I use manual does full power simply blast the image and you need to be further away (or reduce to another power setting) for it to work. Or will full power bounce back and the flash built in meter "handle" the power.

What I really want is to take a reading on a sunny day and have a set aperture (letting the camera handle the shutter) and then get my flash to pop out say a third less ratio.

Oh for the joy of predictabilty like i had on my metz and Vivitar guns.

Thanks again

James

Hi All,

fill-in flash is such a useful and lovely effect. I used to love cranking my Me Super and Metz up - setting the flash a stop or two down and producing even faced portraits in the baking sun! Simmple!

I haven't quite mastered it with the Pentax 540FGZ. How do you do yours?

Cheer all

Bluewhistle

Hi All,
haven't posted for ages or been to the site - hope everyone is well?
I love my K10 - it is such a well designed tool.

Have you ever heard the conundrum about the fox, the hen and the grain of seed at a river crossing - well my nightmare is akin.

Here is my problem and would welcome advice.
Bought a Sigma 18-50mm (old type) and it wasn't sharp on the camera. So I jiggled with the focus adjustment and it looked like it was better.
Turns out the lens was faulty - so the lovely customer service people at Sigma fixed it calibrating it to my body and now it is really nice.
Bought a Sigma 10-20 this wasn't sharp? Sent it back; was sent a new one. It was a little better but still not sharp!!!
So i obviously need to send body and camera to Sigma for calibration.

I have noticed now that my Pentax 80-320 (previously reliable) is unsharp.

When I jiggled with my K10 focus programming I put it back to setting one. Is this the zero?

So what do I do? Is any one following this epic?

Do I send the camera and Pentax 80-320 back to Pentax to get it serviced. Then send the camera and Sigmas to Sigma for calibration!!! Because Pentax may adjust my camera.

What happens when i buy a new lens. Do i send it off again? It cost postage (£25) and the service charge!!

Meanwhile i do the odd paying job and would be losing out.

My head hurts... what really bothers me, (is in my experience) Pentax have the worst customer service until you get to a manager of any company including MFI!!!

The last time I sent my istD* they "lost" it for 3 months and then sent me a body with a dirty screen.

Does anyone have a magic wand?

well it should have a next page button top and bottom of the page! Still looking

or even site... no right the first time

Thanks... I'm looking now but it is such a badly designed sight

Hi,

thanks for the offer JohnRiley... very nice study. Not quite what I'm looking for but not far off.

Thanks for this suggestion.

Let me try outline the self/actual imposed constraints.
I work with other musicians and create album covers for them. Love it!

This band are 4 members and have some pretty big personalities/egos. They are not likely to pay.

I'm Good friends and work creatively with one member, so this is kind of an experiment.

The found object: For those who never had the joy/annoyance of an art foundation, this is where a sculptor for example finds a really nice crushed tin can and then adds it to his art.

To speak plainly the image is a kind of Pop art and it evokes the feeling of finding a nudie pic on a field when you are 10! There I've said it.

But we are censoring her face and replacing it with our logo. It's an image that will get the band noticed and fits in with a previous project they have done.

So I'm kind of asking can anyone look under their beds or in their wardrobes for some 60's, 70's cheesecake shots. Some of you may have this stuff in their sheds or maybe the missus kicked off and you now look like a dog sans its n*ts.

red faced and embarressed

Blue (the irony of my name isn't lost)

Ps.. ive been using photo shop since 1995 for nearly every day, so manipilation is no problem

PPs... women in the 70's had different bodies (thats a perception anyway)

oh the intrigue...

hee hee... it would be nice but to style and find a willing body type girl to pose is more than i'm able at the moment.

The image will be "degraded' so it looks like something found in a bush. I'm not wanting to show any rudie bits.

And I really want it authentic - like you found it in a bush in the late 60's. The arty term is a "found object".