If you want a silky smooth look you need a decent 10 stop filter Alistair, but I happen to like a shorter exposure that retains some texture in the water as yours does here. Between 1 and 4 seconds usually works well.

Regarding the colour cast caused by the filters, I'm not sure that it adds anything to this particular image and I would be tempted to remove it by using a white balance eyedropper tool (Adobe Camera RAW has one, other software probably has similar tools).

I do like the image though, it has a lot of atmosphere.

Regards
David

I love the way these threads shoot off in all directions! I'm sure Peter's original post was not intended to give us all technical tuition in how to avoid yellow colour noise in black areas, but it's interesting all the same.

I think what this thread demonstrates most clearly is that we all have our own way of doing things and even when we use the same equipment the results are very different.

Regards
David

It's a wonderful landscape image Simon, the bare trees are the part that make it for me as they add a great focal point in the middle distance.

Also, as already mentioned above, the conversion is great.

Regards
David

Hi Stuey, yes I'm back in the real world, at least for a while. May have to go back out to Dubai soon though.

I went for a walk this morning in the cool and bright Spring air, what a pleasure this was after a week in the desert. The birds were singing and there was dew on the grass - heaven!

Cheers
David

Hi Stuey

I've never had a problem with the Epson printers after a long period of non-use, but mine is kept in our sunroom which adjoins the cellar, so maybe there's a bit of dampness in the air which helps to prevent this from happening. I've always had Epsons as I like the way they reproduce photos, except for the colour cast on BW images, which I think most budget printers suffer from.

My understanding is that the problems with blockages in the Epson print heads is to do with the fact that they produce much smaller micro dots than some other brands, which helps with photo printing, but makes them more susceptible to blockages.

With mine I have the opposite problem; if I do lots of prints one after another it can block, but after leaving it for a while it sorts itself out.

I can't offer advice on any other brands as I don't have much experience of anything else.

Regards
David

That one in the underground is a great shot Smeggy, a good example of using a wide aperture to best advantage.

Cheers
David

JohnX is right - unless we are all prepared to pay massive sums of money for kit that is manufactured to the highest possible standards, we will require some adjustment to allow for both manufacturing tolerances and wear/tear.

I can confirm it works with Pentax and third party lenses, subject to the lens identity being recognised by the camera (Sigma 105 DG EX and Sigma 150-500 are both recognised).

I can also confirm that even using F8, the differences in focus accuracy can clearly be discerned when using a focus accuracy chart and blowing the resulting images up to 200% or 300%. When comparing them side by side (in tiled view) within Photoshop it is a relatively easy task to see which settings produce the most accurate focus. I used F8 because the lenses tend to be reasonably sharp at this setting, which makes the comparison task easier.

There is no need for the chart to be at 45 degrees; this achieves no useful benefit when comparing the images in the way that I did; in fact it makes the tests more tricky to perform. The results when using the lenses for 'real world' shots bear out the fact that the adjustments made have been successful.

Regards
David

I think the key is to learn intimately the qualities of your camera(s) and lenses, so that when you use them you instinctively know what settings to dial in.

A lot of my landscapes are at F6.3 or F7.1, not because I need the extra light transmission, but because I think they look better at these apertures (I'm talking shots mainly with the DA 16-45 here and latterly with the DA 17-70). I will use narrower apertures only when something in the very close foreground requires critically sharp focus.

For 'people' shots, F2.8 or F3.5 is the norm. For AF lenses, the wider the better, for MF lenses I choose a slightly narrower aperture to give a little more focussing latitude whilst still retaining the out of focus backgrounds and nice bokeh.

I never set my camera on P mode, unless I am having to shoot very quickly in constantly variable conditions (like certain times at a wedding for example). I never set it and leave it on F8 either.

This probably won't be true for everyone, but I'm sure the best shooters on here will be able to visualise quite accurately what an image will look like, given the settings being used, before the shutter is pressed. This only comes with practice and experience, but is the key to taking great pictures IMO. If you don't have this skill, you are trusting to luck to a large extent.

Regards
David

Hi Steve, good to hear you are getting over a bit of a shock and that you are coming back to Pentax. I would probably advise you to look at either a K-30 or a K-5 rather than a K20. You have clearly been used to very capable kit and both the K-30 and the K-5 will deliver consistency of results in all conditions. The K20 will be a bit poorer in low light from an image noise perspective.

You could even consider a K-x or a K-r, although entry level bodies they are both superb in terms of image quality, but you would lose out on ergonomics and weather sealing when compared to the K-30 or K-5.

I hope you get your camera soon and can enjoy taking pictures again.

Regards
David

These images have a lovely feel to them. A couple of them are at a bit of a tilt, but this doesn't really detract too much. A nice set, my favourites are 3 and 4.

Regards
David