How are you setting up you shots John?

I use x5 exposures on AV mode at f/11 and then again at f16 shot in RAW. (Shoot at ISO 100 and again at ISO 200) Above 200 introduces to much noise).

The import into Photomatix, If you have used a tripod all the shots should be aligned no need to have this checked and also un-check the movements also as nothing is in motion.

Reset everything back to defaults as Photomatix loads up with the previous settings used.

For subtle HDR set the top two sliders to 70 (strength and saturation)
Set Light smoothing to High.

Now see what your White and Black points are set to.
Increase the Black point to 2% and review. (Adjust to taste)
Increase White point to 1% and review. (Adjust to taste)

This changes the contrast in the HDR range But keep a watch on the Histogram to make sure you are not causing any clipping.

The other sliders and buttons you can leave as is as you can do further PP in Photoshop with greater control.
However if you want to go for Hyper Realism feel free to adjust the other sliders and buttons. (each image requires different settings).

In Photoshop:

Make your crop.
Apply a small amount of overall capture sharpening.
Setup Threshold adjustment for white and black points.
Set your levels adjustment.
Add Contrast adjustment.
Add Huesaturation adjustment.

That's the basics sorted out now you can begin adding in different exposures or sculpting the Midtone contrasts (I use LucisArt for this) but you can manually gain the same with subtle dodgeburn and vivid light around 3% with airbrush).

Once you are happy with your image Select all Layers, Copy all and paste in.

Sharpen image to taste, I use High pass filter method with masking.

The above is my basic workflow and I hope this helps some what.

Regards,

Gary.

Some images I took this weekend with the view to continuing the HDR theme started by John R.

It is an abandoned Port entrance Lighthouse in Edinburgh near the new Ocean Terminal development.

Comments most welcome.





























Images taken with Pentax K10D and Sigma 10-20mm and 50mm Prime.

Regards,

Gary.

Crashed on my Vista Ultimate Workstation but I run it on my XP laptop without issues.

If you run it on Vista without crashing you are unable to turn off Debug mode.

Caution!!! only use with Windows XP. The application dose not run well with Vista.

Here you go:-

http://dednev.pisem.net/

Download:- setup_gx10_dmctrl_1.1u_eng.exe

Password: penta-club.ru

Just completed calibration of my K10D.

I used the USB connection with 1.30 Firmware and English version of the connect software. This makes it much easier than having to Flash Firmware.

I setup camera with 50mm lens on tripod with popup flash on, Test shot at f1.4 f2, f2.8, f4 & f8.

I also tested with 100mm macro and kit lens , results were same.

Camera adjusted to +90uM and focus seems fine now.

I take some shots on Saturday as I have a planned outing.

Hopefully this will now resolve my focus issues.

Cheers,

Gary.

Canon and Nikon have options to allow user adjustments for AF.

Pentax withdrew these options and removed the 1.10 firmware debug features for the K10D. The only official way yo make changes is to send your K10D and all your lenses to Pentax to make adjustments. Turn around is 28 days! And if your lucky you may get the AF problem fixed else you have to send it all back again!

The K20D has user options to change and save AF for body and 20 lens.

My K10D is less then a year old, why should I have to purchase a K20D to get the functions required to operate the camera correctly. Might as well jump ship

I have never been to happy with the results I was getting from my K10D with large apertures thinking it was me at fault.

However decided to see if the focus was out and indeed it was by 4" front focusing!

I used the Focus chart from this link: http://focustestchart.com/chart.html

The results were easy to see the focus was forward of what it should have been. (I used my 50mm Prime to test - tested on AV auto focus center at f/2, f/4, f/8 and f11)

Installing and access the Debug menu was very easy. As was reinstalling 1.30.

And the instructions from this link: http://www.rarwebworks.com/Photography/Pentax.htm to make the firmware changes required to access the Debug menus.

Rather annoying having to do this with a new camera and researching this I found that a large percentage of Pentax K10D owners have had the same issue. Some Quality assurance on Pentax part should have resolved these before units were shipped out.

I will complete some tests this weekend to see if my images have improved. If the adjustments have not worked I will again consider switching to another manufacturer.

Regards,

Gary.

Yes! Decided to keep it. Had it out over weekend and took some nice shots at the Museum Of Flight Airshow East Lothian.

No longer for sale.