* Slow with a slow card. Sandisk Extreme III is fast, fast, fast. The RAW files are big because this is a 10Mp camera.
* Overblows highlights - not if you learn to meter.
* Over/under expose - all CCDs have a limited dynamic range. Not even a Canon 1DsMkIII can render everything in a scene (that's why pros still use ND grad filters for landscape work)
* In-camera BW mode - yes it does. Read the manual
* Only shoot JPEG for bracketing. Rubbish. I regularly shoot RAW with exposure bracketing.

Still, it's your choice
Matt

You are comparing apples and oranges here...
* "AdobeRGB" is a colourspace (sRGB is another)
* "Lab" is a colour mode. (RGB is another)

Amoringello's comment is, therefore, incorrect as Lab is not a colourspace

The colour mode is how the numbers represent the colour within a given image. If you like, it's the recipe for mixing a particular colour.
In the case of Lab there are three numbers per pixel - "L" for lightness, "a" and "b" for colour.
In the case of RGB there are three numbers per pixel - "R" for red, "G" for green, "B" for blue.

The colourspace (or gamut) defines the range of colours that a given colour mode can represent. In a sense this defines the scale of range (a bit like choosing a ruler that's either a 1m or 30cm ruler and defining the numbers as a percentage of the rule - if you get my drift).

That said, John's comment is accurate... but some of the tricks of converting to Lab and back again are unnecessary in PS. There are two useful tricks for Lab - (1) sharpening, (2) boosting colour contrast.

Both of these can be achieved implicity:
1) Duplicate layer; sharpen (hard); and change layer blend mode to "Luminosity".
This has the same effect (*) as the conversion to and from as Photoshop only adjusts the Luminosity component. (* well, very, very nearly.)

2) Add a "Brightness/Contrast" adjustment layer; Change layer blend mode to "Color"; Increase the contrast in the control.
This does the same trick that can be done in Lab mode where the a+b channels are given extra contrast.

Most experts generally advise against unduly converting from Lab-rgb-Lab because there is a real possibility of introducing errors in the conversion (due to number rounding errors). So the above two methods are helpful

There are more colourspaces too - ProPhoto is a very good one (but needs to be handled in 16-bit only). AdobeRGB is a good general working gamut that suits printing very well.

There are other colour modes too - CMYK being another (useful for creating colour separations for offset-Litho printing).

Hope that clears it up
Matt

The answer is 42
(What is 6 times 9?)
...or so someone once said
Matt

Just to add...
HDR in Capture One 4 is a bit like the Dynamic Range settings in Silkypix. It doesn't actually give you any more dynamic range from the CCD - just squishes the top/bottom of the histogram to squeeze more into the output.

With Artizen, and "proper" HDR techniques, you are capturing a set of exposures that represent a very, very wide range of exposures. Artizen does an excellent job of creating a stack of the RAW or TIFF files and blending them into a 32-bit per pixel HDR image.

Once in a 32-bit image (which is so huge that nothing can display or print the range) you need to do a "Tone Map" which is a complex piece of maths and algorithms to do what our brains do naturally - squeeze that huge range into an image that somehow looks natural.
The tone mapped output is then 16/8 bit per pixel ready for printing/display.

The skill comes in handling the tone mapping
Too aggressive and it'll look "cartoony". Too weak and you'll not get the range into the output image.
(Just to add that because of the image sizes involved it is a very time consuming and memory hungry process!)

The above example is a great one showing that it's possible to get really natural results from HDR Well done
Matt

Actually, you need to set your timezone in the "Profile" page (look just to the right of the "USER" of the Pentax User logo above)

You'll find it's probably set to "GMT + 1" (as mine was).
The forum (as with the whole Internet) works on GMT (or thereabouts ). You have to specify your timezone and the forum software will adjust from GMT.

You should also notice a little comment at the bottom of the forum saying "All Times Are GMT + 1" (or whatever)

Hope that helps!
Matt

Good point Rob
The times I did HDR, I used Av mode naturally. As you say, it's vitally important that the aperture does not change throughout the exposure set.

Matt

This is a different issue altogether

The NR setting, as mentioned, is only for long duration exposures. The dark frame subtraction does help - even in RAW. However, the K10D is very, very good (especially compared to the *ist-D). For example, the quality of batteries made a big difference to the amount of CCD noise at long exposures. With the LiIon battery of the K10D, and presumably better electronics too, the problems are a lot smaller. Silkypix does a very good job of isolating hot pixels (Capture One does a passable job, and ACR doesn't do a good job AFAIK).

Regarding the dark areas... the problem is that the CCD is linear, not logarithmic. Consequently, in a 12-bit RAW file there are 2048 values for the highest 1-stop, 1024 for the next, 512 for the next, 256 for the next etc. So, by the time you get to 5-stops under the brightest, you've only got a measly 128 values

Best approach for HDR work:
* Use the auto bracket on the K10D and set 2-stop interval for 5 exposures. This will give you a good range.
* Definitely use a tripod
* Process the RAW files in Silkypix first into 16-bit TIFF files. Silkypix has excellent noise reduction properties. If not, use Capture One LE (free with Sandisk Extreme III cards). Just don't use a curve or contrast adjustment. Process them flat after apply white balance and film type.
* Bring the TIFF files into your HDR app (I use Artizen because it has far more choices when it comes to tone mapping operators. Photomatix uses the Fattal operator which can be a bit "cartoony", if you know what I mean)

As soon as you start trying to pull the shadows too far from the gloom, you'll get noise. However, as I mentioned, a carefully setup Silkypix will give you great HDR results (You'll get the problems you mentioned if you try and push a single RAW file too hard)

Hope that helps!
Matt

Hi Pete! Looks like you've been busy.
Just to say... there are lots of spelling and typographical errors on your site (especially in the "Questions" section).
e.g. "proffesional"

e.g. "whether its natural or studio"... should be "it's" (it is)

etc, etc

Spelling checkers are freely available... at least run it through Word or OpenOffice...

Hope it's working out for you though
Matt

Ditto

It depends what I'd be doing. For general stuff it'd be the 16-45... but I'd need the ND grads for landscapes too

Matt

The K110D doesn't support TTL.
Only the *ist-D and *ist-Ds digital bodies supported TTL.

(All the DSLRs support P-TTL, but only the expensive digital flashes will support this.)

You can use:
* "A" mode on the flash
* "M" mode on the flash

(Check out some of the other threads here on flash & DSLRs).
e.g. https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4950 and the subheading "Use fully manual for controlled situations"

Since you are doing macro work, I would advise fully manual on both flash and body

Hope that helps!
Matt