Far too cluttered Roy, the trunk is lost. You could have got in closer, with a wider angle. This would have made more of a feature of the trunk but would have captured the environment also.

Should've got the fisheye out !

Examples I've seen shot with this lens in the past have always left me a little indifferent. These examples show it's sharp enough and has very a nice bokeh quality. I think it could make a nice portrait lens

I'd try & utilise a rain cover or silmilar, or come up with a home-made solution. I wouldn't buy a WR version just for that one-off shoot, you could end up wiping some drips of the front element & scratching it etc. I'm sure alot of your concentration will be taken by conditions underfoot etc.

Fit the 18-55, get some electrical tape & tape around the lens mount to try & stop any water ingress into the body. Creating a rain cover yourself will then be a matter of preference, you could keep it compact & seal it between the lens hood & body, but this may hinder handling somewhat, or use a very large sturdy bag, cut a hole for the lens & then tape this around the hood, this should allow you to place your hands & head under the bag & shoot as normal. Don't suffocate yourself though !

Don't spend it all at once !

I'd agree with Mike here, try a prime & you may end up "making do" with your old wardrobe in order to buy more primes !
I also had the Sigma 30mm on Pentax & it is wonderful, the rendering is just something special & it's incredibly sharp. Mine did need a slight focus adjustment on the K20d though, does the k-x have this function ? Depth of field at f1.4 doesn't allow much scope for error.

Also make sure you road test a k-x first. It may have a sensor with larger photosites, giving better high iso performance, but you may well miss some of the feautures of your k20d such as dual control wheels & selectable focus points etc.
Also, if you intend on utilising those 2 flashes for your formal portraits, you're not going to need to push the iso.

With no example shots it's hard to judge. It could be that this guy takes no notice of shutter speed & is experiencing camera shake rather than poorly focused shots, the K20d's SR may have been his "get out of jail free card" but the lack of stabilisation is now exposing poor technique.

Of course I'm jumping to a conclusion here, but it's certainly a plausible one, as some people expect the camera to do all the thinking for them.

Great shots Don. Even though that Aprilia is quite diminutive in stature, it still dwarfs Max !

Do you have any shots of the Brit boys you'd like to share ?

The plugin in question is "Silver Efex Pro" by Nik software. I'm not sure if it will work with elements, but they have versions for Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture.

It only does B&W conversions, but the live preview & degree of control allows quicker & easier conversions.

Plugins only use the functionality of the program in question, so to save cash, look up a tutorial for what you are trying to achieve.

Hi Emma, I use photoshop, so am not sure if the tools are replicated in your version of elements, but you may be able to achieve the effect in a different manner.

I used the hue/saturation sliders to give a natural looking colour & to desaturate the colours a little.

I then copied the layer & created a black & white conversion with high local contrast (I used a plugin for this, but you could achieve the same high contrast look with careful use of a "high pass filter")

I then changed the "blending mode" of the top layer to "luminosity", this allows some colour through whilst keeping the high contrast. If it's too strong, then try lowering the opacity of the top layer.


Sorry if I've lost you along the way, but you did ask ! If you're not sure of some of the terms I've used, try searching for elements tutorials that will give a more in-depth explanation.

I'd be tempted to keep some colour in the stairs shot, although get rid of most of the green & desaturate slightly. Plus a generous contrast boost. ( I also straightened the stairs, although they weren't far off)

[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q105/RR76/20080104_23.jpg[/IMG]

edited for typo

Don't forget that Sigma announced the 8-16mm at PMA this year.

I'm not sure when it will available & what the price is likely to be, but if you want wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide, it could be worth waiting for.