Totally agree with DaveHolmes.
The Pentax-F 35-70mm is a great lens for portraits on any of the K-digitals.
I will go further - it is the "always on" lens for my K20; there are others in the bag, including an M50/1.4, but the 35-70 takes some beating for an all-round choice.
Geoff

Just got my copy of Lightroom. Now there is one steep learning curve.
Laura, I do not think that you would like it.
PSE10 will enable you to remove stray items (branches, telegraph poles, etc) fairly easily.
Unlike Aero, I am not a fan of Serif (the company or the software, just why is not really relevant here) and I think that Photoplus X2 (which I have had installed for some time) is not in the same league as PSE 10. Corel Paintshop Pro X4 (got that one as well) is much better than Photoplus.
With PSE10, you can start small (cropping, resizing, anjusting contrast, etc) and develop your skills at your own pace.
Since you do an amount of monochrome, Laura, you would find that the mono converter in PSE10 (with five options) would give you enough creative control for a long time).

Geoff

Aura Todd wrote:


Go to: http://library-genesis.com/ and search for Adobe Photoshop 10 and Lightroom 4.
Note that some of the files are rather large.

Geoff

Well, I suppose that is what happens when you market a camera "designed" by a stylist.
Geoff

Look at it like this Louise:
A remaindered version of Elements 10 is going to give you what you want now, and give you room to grow in the future.
It is easy enought to start with (the sort of stuff you listed) but with potential to do a lot more - and sooner or later you will want to do a lot more.
If you want to do more monochrome, then Elements 10 has given me some good results in club competitions, but I understand that Lightroom 4 is better.
There is a good price on LR4 at Amazon right now (and I have a copy on order), and a lot of my local club members prefer it to E10 (and to anything else).
Geoff

I thought about what I actually do (in some cases almost on autopilot).

Open the .jpg image (PSE10), go to Enhance > adjust lighting > shadows and highlights. This atomatically lightens most any image. Save as a .psd file (non-lossy), then open it again and repeat. Now it is a lot lighter.

Go to File>Print set the printer (for me, 'cos I have a laser hooked up as well), and then go into Change Settings.

Then >Advanced Settings > Click the Main tab. Then on Color/Intensity > Manual > Set

To lighten up the whole print (yet again) set Brightness to Light.
I also remove my red tinge by moving the Cyan slider to +8 to +12 (+10 to +12 works for me most times).

Then it's one proof on A4 and go for A3.

If it is really critical, once you have an A4 reference print, you can go back to the RAW file and adjust that. (A fringe benefit of being able to save both formats.)

I think, but cannot prove easily, that the repeated lightening is as important as the red-cyan adjustment. Too much cyan - say approaching +15 - seems to give a monochrome image a faint blue cast. This can be quite attractive, and will maybe make the clouds look good, but the judges will jump on it.
Geoff

I had the same problem for the first few prints from my iX6550. Prints also came out darker than I expected.
The solution was easy.
Work through the printer menus until you get the point where you can tweak the settings manually'
Set the overall printing to light instead of the default.
Move the red-cyan slider to give between +8 and +12 (cyan bias).
Sorted!
The Cyan setting may need a touch of adjustment to match the paper being used (glossy or pearl for example), but you can set the thing so that those settings are used all the time.
I have heard that this printer over-saturates on matt paper, but have not tried this for myself (always use Pearl for club comp entries).

Geoff

The obvious answer is ... ... ...
The one that feels right in your hand.
For me, with small hands, the P50 is my favourite of the non-autofocus bodies.
For autofocus, any of the MZ series.
i have had most of the ones mentioned above, and found some were very fiddly to operate (even just to switch on and off) but in the end, you have to hold one (any one) and see if it is right or wrong for you.
Geoff

I came the normal route, film to digital,and still use film.
Like Jonathan Mac says, the P30n is a great tool, I had a P30 bought in a Depot Vente in Dreux, and kept it until its replacement - a P50 - came along. With either of the P series, you can hang an MEII winder on, and my P50 also has a Tamron f2.4 17mm Adaptall-2 permanently on the front.
In contrast to JM, I have not shot 35mm monochrome since the 1960s - for most of the time since it was 400 ASA Fuji - now it is whatever I can get hold of, but there is always a roll of something 200 ASA next to the P50.
Give the film a go, while you still can. So many companies have dropped 35mm film now, that you may not be able to do it for much longer - and it does make you think about each shot.
Geoff

I thought along the same lines, and went for a split-image screen from Tmart.
It took three weeks to arrive(including Christmas)and about an hour to fit.
Don't be put off by the "hour to fit", - my MS has given me a tremor in one hand, that makes fine jobs a bit trying.
The screen came in a neat case, both sides film covered, cleaning cloth, two pairs of tweezers. It came really cheap:
http://www.tmart.com/Split-Image-Focus-Screen-for-Pentax-K10-K20-K100_p126992.ht...
Initial tests look like it works really good, and a touch more precise than the focus indicator in the viewfinder. The only thing that I have noted so far, is a shift in focus with a zoom lens when using the zoom (not surprising, really).
It seems like a good way to get some fast glass onto my K20 without talking to the bank manager - An M series50mm f1.4 makes the K20 real handy.
Tmart have some other goodies that I may have to try later on - depends on the MS and the eyesight.

Geoff