Sorry about the delay, I meant to reply!!

Try this technique (or at least this type) in Photoshop:

* Add a new adjustment layer - Brightness & Contrast
* Click OK when the dialog appears (leaving both settings at 0)
* Change the layer blend mode (in the layers palette) from "Normal" to "Luminosity"
* Now double click the B&C layer and adjust the brightness and contrast controls.

There are three things to note here:
1. Setting the blend mode to "Luminosity" means you won't get colour shifts when you adjust the brightness and contrast.

2. Because it's on an adjustment layer you can click the little "eye" to the left of the layer to toggle it on and off - that gives you a really quick, non-destructive way of modifying the image.

3. If you pick a brush, or the gradient tool (set to "Foreground-Transparent" and set the opacity of the brush or gradient to around 20% you can "paint" the effect in or out. That way you can apply localised adjustments to an image.

Just stack up the layers, experiment with different blend modes and types of adjustment.

As has been mentioned, the curves tool is very powerful once you've learned how to handle it


In the top picture I went for B&C at B=+12, and C=+33 (with Luminosity blend).
In the bottom I went for B=+44 and C=+16 (though her face could do with a further localised lift)

For the face, you can do this:
* Add a new blank layer in the layers palette
* Change the blend mode to "Soft Light"
* Pick a large soft brush, opacity 10% and paint white to lighten
* (You can paint black to darken)
That gives you quick-n-easy dodge-n-burn without affecting the underlying image

If you need more help with layers, I have a couple of tutorials on my website: www.photon.me.uk

Hope that helps!
Matt

Liam,
The Canon DSLRs have this. They just set an EXIF flag and the software (generally) does the rest.
In Capture One it's not difficult - Ctrl-R or Shift-Ctrl-R and works on single images as well as multiple selected images. Because it's so easy, it's never really bothered me that much
Matt

ROFL @ "behavioral conditioning" I reckon most wives would like them too
Reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon with him trying to pass a hardware store without being sucked into its vortex.... needless to say he failed to walk on by
Matt

...and let the dust, fungus, and rot get at 'em?

And for those who are paranoid about RAID5... get different batch numbers for each of the drives. RAID5 can only tolerate one drive dying, and if you get a set of drives all the same batch they can die together
Just a thought
Matt

Or... (just to throw a spanner in the works ) get a RAID5 server

Insight UK do the Buffalo Terastation for not a great deal of money.
http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=BUF1TBWLR
4 x 250Gb HDDs in a little box, you can config to RAID 5 (that's more space effective than mirrored BTW) giving you around 750Gb of network attached storage. Link to a Gigabit Ethernet hub and run your PCs and Macs off it

Then the PCs can pop, the HDs can die, and you've still got the photos on the server.

(I have a Quasar server in RAID5 doing just that, but it's more than the Buffalo)

PS: We're getting a little off-topic here... might have to splice this thread into a new one

Matt

Mike,
For the *ist-DS, yes it has to be physically connected (via the 5P type connector).

Switch the AF360 to "HS" mode on the slide switch. It's in the *ist-DS manual on page 155. However, the instructions say "set the exposure to M" - but on the *ist-D it works in all exposure modes. What happens is if the shutter speed is less than 1/180s it reverts to normal, and when above that it uses HS mode.

If you mount the AF360 on a bracket, make sure you don't short out any of the pins!! Ideally, use the 5P off camera adapter (the one with the tripod mount hole on the bottom) and a bracket that fits into that screw hole. Then use the Pentax cabling and the hot-shoe adapter to connect.

The *ist-D can do wireless HS sync as well as tethered

Hope that makes sense!
(I can try it with an *ist-DS if you need more help!)

Matt

Don,

I used an AF540 with the bounce card, tethered to the *ist-D, triggering an AF360 firing through an umbrella - all in HS (High Speed Sync) mode. The flashes did give an excellent fill, and a beautiful catchlight. However, I found that the AF360 didn't always pick up the controller signal - partly because it was obscured by the translucent umbrella, and probably because it was a little too far away (about 6-8ft).

However, generally I found that the AF540 was meaty enough on its own. I hacked an old Pentax 4P grip to take the AF540 and used the 5P connector from the flash straight to the hotshoe of the *ist-D. Outdoors in HS mode, pointing straight up to the sky with the bounce card gave enough fill in even for groups of 6 or so people.

Just got the 10x10" & 10x7" prints back (printed at 402dpi) and I'm "chuffed" to say the least - very nearly MF quality

Indoors, the double wireless flash works a dream - I think that high ambient lighting conditions reduce the wireless range somewhat. But I didn't have long to experiment... need more time

Re: AF540 modes, I think those modes are listed in the manual. I'll check later

Hope that helps!
Matt

Simple answer then:
Put a very "dumb" small flash on the hot shoe of the *ist-D to trigger everything in dumb mode
Something like the AF160 would work well

EDIT: Ooops - just read the rest of your answer. Yes, keeping the popup flash down, and triggering off either the PC connector or hotshoe will not fire a preflash (it can't because then the older flashes won't work). Incidentally, I have a Metz 50MZ5 as well which never preflashes, because it will only support TTL (not P-TTL), even with the latest SCA adapter.

I can try some other combinations, but hopefully this will get you out of the "hole" for now

Matt

Suggestion: use M mode on the camera, and set to wireless flash. Set the slave flashes to Slave 1 (intelligent mode). Sorted

According to the manual the preflash will not fire when the lens is set to an aperture other than "A". That appears to be the only mode that it doesn't fire.

What I was saying (or at least trying to) in the other post was that if you use Slave2 (dumb mode) with a flash that fires a pre-flash then your guide number is effectively halved. As above the *ist-D almost always fires a preflash, so this is almost certainly your problem. It would explain why it is "unreliable" - the preflash would be dumping most of the light and the flash would be unable to recover.

The preflash is not full power - it allows the camera to work out if you have any reflective surfaces and adjust exposure accordingly. As you say this makes little sense in the "M" mode - but it does allow the camera to regulate the flashes output. I took a tricky indoor shot that had sunlight streaming in the room by spot metering in "M" mode and having the flash on P-TTL. I didn't even have to think about the flash - it just worked. (Bizarre maybe, but it did!)

Incidentally: setting highspeed (HS) wireless flash on both camera and flash is excellent for outside fill-in flash. Works an absolute treat. This does reduce your guide number, but will allow synchronisation far above 1/125s.

I'll check out the Slave2 modes on the AF540 sometime...

Matt