One of the strengths here is the very clear layout and readable display of text, which neatly divides posts with the different grey shadings, and the quotes are well set off with white backgrounds. You can clearly see the avatars near the text, and there's good and common sense navigational links also.

I've tried a few other forums and they all suffer from similar ergonomic issues, which this one thankfully doesn't, that can make navigating around annoying and more effort than it should be. So you've chosen well marat, I hope you can take on board some of these good points for your own online developments. And if you're involved in any other forums you could even make suggestions there that they could adopt.

Very effective framing and subtle colours. It doesn't look critically sharp to me ... Perhaps some additional sharpening on the in-focus areas alone is all that's needed?

Its a good relaxing pose with nice skin tones and sympathetic exposure. I'm not so convinced about the greenery though, which I find clashes somewhat with the subject.

I know, some things just aren't worth further effort.

I agree, navigating around forums can be frustrating ... This one's very good though, it's even been hailed as an example by members on another Pentax forum who want to make changes there! So rest assured you're in the right place.

Marat, you've obviously missed the current thread about metering techniques and pentax specific custom settings ... There's a lot of interest there both for seasoned Pentaxians and the odd new starter as well

Careful, don't want to go off-topic there, isn't that another marques's terminology? I think us Pentaxians have 'Multi-Segment' mode. The K7 is 77 segment actually, so hopefully it'll respond OK to something even fairly small.

But frankly, it may be a minor point, less significant really than where you point the lens at when taking a reading, and the best advice seems to be to go for a lit mid tone on the ground. Personally since coming to Pentax I've stopped using the AE-L button (locking an exposure then holding it while recomposing - too much faffing.) Now I set manual mode and press the green button to take the reading - in M mode its held automatically anyway.

I think there's a setting in the menus also to prevent the exposure from changing when you activate autofocus - thats quite important if you've taken a reading already in M - you don't want that changing when you re-focus (would that happen in M?) ... anyway, there's a custom item to control this.

Its so great that we are talking in detail about Pentax metering and exposure management techniques! Its all excellent, makes me glad I'm still around here

Definitely a good idea to experiment ... maybe something backlit, something in shadow with brighter zones behind, and try out the modes as Matt said, then try the custom AF setting on and off.

Great birdy action Carl, best for me are 4 & 6

If you're using autofocus, then on a Pentax DSLR check your custom menu item 'link AE to AF point' ... when active this will increase the matrix metered bias to the area covered by the active focus points, and in the case of an in-focus aircraft in the sky, then is likely to increase overall exposure somewhat.

My main concern if shooting this sort of thing would be underexposed aircraft against a correctly exposed sky, which would be the most common automatic scenario (assuming a lot of sky and a much smaller amount of aircraft). It depends of course on the sun direction - if your plane is in shadow it will be worse, and if its got sunlight glinting off it all may be well. The setting I mentioned above may make some difference, but is unlikely to sort everything out.

If metering off ground items then I'd suggest making sure they are actually fully sunlit to get a good balance for the sky - shadow areas will likely cause overexposure if those settings are locked in and then you head for the sky.

Depending on your camera, some underexposure may be preferable for this - you get a little more shutter speed and you can raise the subject selectively a bit in processing - this depends on your cameras shadow raising ability of course.