I'm not certain I have understood grahamcoad's post.
Of course if I sell it (still have to see what its the going price for a working but faulty K10D) it will be advertised as faulty, and fault will be described, as I've attempted to do in the thread whose link I've posted above.

I don't know what my standing is with PU users, but I can tell you not one, of whom I've sold to here or ebay (100% positive), have accused me of trying to sell them a lemon.

I should've checked for repairers in the UK, but since I'm not longer in Scotland, I went with Reflecta, the official service provider indicated on Pentax's portuguese page. The results of that consultation are in the aforementioned thread.

With your setup, I don't think you have much chance.
With PS you might isolate the subject and clip the rest, with skill this can be done properly. You are still left with over-exposing. Light angles would be much harder to emulate. Basically easier and better effect to just re-shoot.

As you may know, my K10D developed a problem with focus.
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/k10d-focus-problems-32857

I am looking to sell it and replace with a used camera.

I would prefer K10D or K20D for the form factor, but k200D or K-m also under consideration. I am very constrained in terms on price and can't bury more money into the hobby (also dunno how much I'll recover on the faulty K10D).

On ebay I've seen K100D for a bit less than K10D, is it worth it? Would I be very disappointed? I'm thinking yes.

PM sent.

I need to scrape some money together to replace my faulty K10D.


IMGP6958 by eduardodourado, on Flickr
This lens is in good condition with only a few marks on the body and a small nick on the front lens element.


IMGP6952 by eduardodourado, on Flickr
There is no haze or fungus on the lens (that I can see), only a little bit of dust.


IMGP6953 by eduardodourado, on Flickr


IMGP6955 by eduardodourado, on Flickr
The lens comes with a Pentax K adapter, so it'll work on any Pentax SLR and DSLR. This adapter does not have electric contacts so you'd have to use M mode.


IMGP6957 by eduardodourado, on Flickr
I have a KA adapter, but it is faulty, it works intermittently and I don't know what is wrong with it. If anyone is interested in it, PM me.

There is also front and back cap (non-original) and I'll throw in a Vivitar Skylight (1A) 58mm filter as well.

Price would be £38.80 via regular international mail (up to 5 days) shipped from Portugal.

So I eventually got tired of this and sent the camera to Reflecta in Spain, which is the reference support for Pentax in its portuguese site.

A slow and opaque process followed (codes to track repair budgeting didn't work), I've gotten a quote for 314 Euros. "Main base cam dig" + labour + postage.
Not clear, but something massive needed replacing.
I asked the equipment be returned, because at that price I'd rather wait and live with the problem until a cheap alternative is found.

Its been 9 days since the quote and after two emails no acknowledgement has been made...
Not well impressed with the whole process.

Eddyc, the Vivitar should indeed work well for portraits. I had one in M42 mount, not super sharp, but not bad.

Check out Cambridge in colour:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm
They have some good explanations on some technical aspects of photography.

A short-course, if its a good one, would help you, but its really not needed. If you have time and patience you can learn alot by yourself.

On the issue of blurry foreground and backgrounds...
In simple terms: on your lens you will see a scale in the focus ring, this indicates at which distance the lens is focusing. Any subject which is in the same distance will be in sharp focus. However, there isn't a sharpor unsharp, you can see, that a bit before the focus distance and little after it things are sharp but become blurrier. If you imagine a bell curve around the focus distance, at the top of the curve there is maximum sharpness, at the bottom its blurry.

With different lenses and different settings on the lens (aperture, Av setting, F numbers) you can change that bell curve. You can make it very short (low F numbers, high aperture) or very elongated (large F numbers, low aperture).
To make sure what you have in the foreground is sharp, make sure the focus distance and/or the top region of the bell curve includes those subjects. For example, in the middle picture, you have two leafs which are very close, if you remove then, then the foreground becomes the other set of leafs which are in focus. You could possibly focus on those two leafs, have them in focus, together with the middle ones, but you'd see the branches in the distance sharper as well.

I hope you aren't more confuse now

I've made $10 from a collection of 12 images over a span of 2 years on Dreamstime.co.uk
So no, not much money, but mind you I've put no effort in producing stock images, just went through my collections, put some up and forgot about it.

Which reminds me I'll have to rummage through it again and put some more up.
You can make some money out of stock photography, but you have to put the effort into it and on photography you might not even enjoy. Only a few have it as a major source of income.

That Manfrotto tripod is great, but so is the Redsnapper 284. I've had the later and can vouch its very strong and capable. Mind you, it can take more load but also is heavier, make sure what is important for you.