Hi Gary,

The K10D manual is designed so that you can find out how to work the camera, and use all the features it has. It's not designed as a photography manual, which is what you need (or some tuition if that's what works for you).

A photography manual will show the effect of different shutter speeds, aperture values etc, and you can then refer to your camera manual to see how you change these things.

So a general course, or a good book, will tell you the basics, and it doesn't need to be pentax specific.

Pop down your local library and see what books they have (Michael Freeman has produced several on the basics of photography), check out your local Adult Education centre, they may have one day courses at the weekend, or night courses all year round. If your were near Essex I'd offer my services, but Derbyshire is a bit of a way off.

Dan

You could also google 'Pentax Tuition' or similar.

Dan

Some people run photography workshops and offer one-to-one tuition, and details will be on their website (you might find a link to their website at the bottom of their post).

Depends whereabouts you are of course, but you might be lucky and find something nearby.

Dan

My friend near Edinburgh said it has been cold and snowy, all we get down here is wet and windy.

I've got a teasel head ready and waiting for a frost, been sat there a few weeks now...

Think I like your frosty moss(?) most, but it all looks beautiful up there.

Dan

Gosh, we are all in an agreeable mood!

Dan

I think it must be. I'll make a note of it on my calendar.

Ken, I wasn't mentioning the histogram specifically regarding you, just that there tends to be this 'never burn out the highlights' attitude, which I think stems from overstrict application of what the histogram tells us. I think I probably mentioned it more to pre-empt anyone saying "the highlights are burnt out and the shadows have blocked up".

Lovely photo by the way.

Dan

I'm glad you agree with me! But just to clarify, I mean at the taking stage preserve the highlights, but when you do your print, if you want to blow them out, that's fine. If that's what looks best, go for it. Don't think "I MUST NOT blow my highlights", if a very high key, predominantly white image, looks fantastic.

But when you take the pic, preserve as much potentially useful information as possible. You might find that the shot doesn't look as good high-key as you thought it would, and detail in the highlights makes the shot after all.

Dan

Here's my more contrasty version. It undoubtedly blocks up some of the shadows, but looking at the histogram of the original these are very small areas, just a flat line. Also some of the highlights will be blown, but again these are just a flat line on the histogram.




And a slightly warm version, which I prefer to the blue:





In this digital age, when we all check our histograms to ensure we haven't blown the highlights, I think we often think that we have to keep them in the final image. This was never the case before, when we couldn't check the histogram of our prints, so I don't think we should be so hung up on it now. By all means start with the best 'negative', but if the best print has pure white or pure black elements to it, so be it.

Dan

As I use Elements I haven't got the Channel Mixer, but I use a Hue/Saturation layer instead. Just reduce the saturation to zero, then adjust the lightness of the individual colours - drop down the 'edit' box and choose each colour, play with the lightness and see what effect it has.

Then add a levels layer to ensure you have deep blacks and bright whites if that's what you want.

Ken, I only asked because the image looked lacking in contrast. I had a play and adjusted the levels and I thought it looked better (to me), but obviously it's all down to the look you're after.

Dan

Is that the scan as supplied, or after you've worked on it Ken?

Dan