It seemed like a safe bet for a lens to take to the Brighton seafront and pier with the family .... the little SMC DA 18-55 AL WR, a useful thing sometimes, although I probably don't take advantage enough. This was a rare trip out with the camera during the summer .....

All shots with the K7 ...


1. ISO 100 / F16 / 1/90th / 18mm






2. ISO 100 / F13 / 1/180th / 55mm






3. ISO 100 / F11 / 1/250th / 24mm






4. ISO 100 / F16 / 1/180th / 24mm / Built in Flash






Here's 2 versions of this one .... what do you prefer ? This shot is with on-camera High Speed Sync Flash .....

5 (A/B). ISO 100 / F5.6 / 1/500th / 55mm / AF-540FGZII








Thanks for your views, and viewpoints

I would love a K1, and its dynamic range ..... but not in order to avoid flash . Noise with the K7 in shadow areas is a problem, which is why I have to limit things to unimportant parts of the image. But there's no way I think we should be taking portraits with the face in deep shadow, aiming to 'recover' it later, not even with RAW and a K1.

I was hoping this wouldn't have to be moved to the post processing forum!

I'm not convinced I'm afraid, and prefer the flash effect ..... the compensation option allows a good degree of flexibility in how strong it looks. I'm not one for the subtle 'fill-in' .... I like it bright and bold, and its rare for me to work at anything less than -0.5 compensation for the flash. Of course I do wish to avoid that 'washed out' look, and I could have reduced the flash power here a bit and still had a good balance in the images, granted.

Generally I feel that 'shadow recovery' should be reserved for unimportant areas of an image (eg underneath tress and undergrowth). I don't see it as a valid technique for use on the face of a portrait, which I think should be lit and exposed correctly as you want it at capture. Of course, I'm a K7 user, and I have to suffer noise in the shadow areas .... a K1 user would no doubt have far greater success with this technique .... but still, I like to try and balance things correctly at capture if possible.

This is all about using what resources and approaches are to hand and practical in the circumstances of course ..... its about which one of the compromises available works best for us.

Some good points raised guys! Perhaps we should let the K1 and K3II people in then ....if they promise to bring their little pop-ons!

I went out with the 14mm on the camera specifically for the gardens and surrounds, and didn't expect to do any people shots at all. But it was a grab the moment scenario, and a case of use what you've got.

This is a great place right here for anyone to post up their pop-up, or pop-on, or even just ambient only shots, to show how to take control and balance foreground/subject lighting with bright natural light behind......

Well, they can't apply this technique! We users of the more normal cameras can feel good that we've got at least one trick up our sleeves that the K1 & K3II users don't ..... and its of course about using the Built-in Flash!

Even flashgun fanatic me sometimes leaves them all at home, thinking that there just won't be any chance to fit one and fiddle around. I thought that today on a visit to Chartwell, but I was really glad to have the humble little pop-up flash ready in an instant when I ran into some DR and shadow challenges .....

Here's the situation ..... my daughter was sitting on a bench with the gardens beyond. They were mostly in nice light, but the bench was in shade. The result, if I exposed nicely for the sky and held the highlights, looked like this ..... K7 + Samyang 14mm F2.8




Hmmm... not much good for a 'portrait'. So I flicked up the flash. This now limits the shutter speed to 1/180th, which can be a problem in sunlight as it is easy to overexpose the ambient. However, I made sure I gave the camera a fair chance by sticking to ISO200, and stopping down to F9.5 (I wanted this anyway to get everything in focus).

I worked in Av mode, and set -1.0 Exposure Compensation to ensure the sky highlights were not clipped. On the flash I used -0.5 Flash Compensation to create a pleasing balance between the close subject and background. I wanted the face lit up like it from the sunshine, and I wanted it to 'pop' a bit out from the background..... here's a few showing the result ....













Of course the main issue with direct front on flash like this is the harsh shadows it can create, and this is especially problematic indoors when there's a wall behind (the typical party look). Here the shadows are quite heavy on the 2nd shot, where they are cast by the arm of the bench and her leg . But on the others its not an issue because there's nothing for them to fall onto. This is the key to it looking OK I think, just aiming to have empty space behind your subject so that we don't see those hard shadows.

Anyway, I hope that this is something that many will find useful, as it can really add some sparkle to shots like this, mainly because the exposures can be individually optimised for both the subject and the background ...... And only those K1 and K3II users have any decent excuse not to try it !

Nigel

A good subdued lighting effect that plays well to the black tones. Also you've got a good angle on the subject with the face turned towards you. It all works really well!

Would you consider a crop to produce a more 'rule of thirds' type composition? As it is it has a rather static look, with equal dead space on either side.

We'd all have to renew our magazine subscriptions to find out then!

Given that the lens is usually about £50, it seems quite good really ..... The next model on, the K7. Is a stretch now between £160-200.

Not bad for quite a lot of camera if you're starting out with little money.

It's certainly not necessary to spend a lot of money for high quality processing capability. I use the Sagelight 4.5 RAW converter, with its very powerful and intuitive functioning .....£25 for life with occasional free updates.

Zoner Photo Studio (Free version) provides good photo management. And I use the free PhotoShop CS2 (old version, about 11 years old now) which has all the basics needed.

So we shouldn't feel trapped or locked in by Adobe, unless there's a real professional or efficiency need for those big sophisticated packages.

On an iPad now, better screen, and there's almost nothing between them .... at most the last one has the tiniest edge in extra sharpness. I'd assume that the bicubuc sharper effect was more due to the greater size reduction. So it seems that smaller is better!