It's flare,..notice that it only affects the top of the pic and her hands are quite clear. The 'studio' method of softening/hazing is to use fine muslin in front of the lens.

So how much duty and VAT are you going to have to pay on that then?

They look like computer games. perhaps when computer games start to look less dramatic then HDR photography will improve too...

Some of those shots are of St Petersburg, a beautiful and mysterious city that has some wonderful photographers. If you want to look at some real photography of St Pete's then you can do no better than the work of Mikhail Petrov,..all made with Contax G, wide Biogons and something called 'film'...:

http://contaxg.com/category.php?page=&id=4&offset=40

See also previous and next pages from this which is the landscape sextion of the 'Contax G Pages'

I have a Sunpak Auto Zoom 3600 which I have had for many years. It is a very well designed pro, or semi-pro, flash system with excellent characteristics and a good range of accessories to make it really useful in a wide range of applications.

George is absolutely right about NEVER buying any photo gear that is 'auto only'.

Your advice that you can only use the Sunpak manually is incorrect. There is a thyristor built into the gun and an additinal remote sensor is/was available. This will give you excellent auto flash exposure over a wide range of distances and be perfectly adequate for the most demanding work.

With the gun set to manual, you can turn down the power in a full range of increments down to 1/64 of full power. This is VERY useful for any kind of 'studio' aplication where you don't want to overlight the subject such as still life and portraits etc.

The tripping voltage of the Sunpak is nearly 200 volts and I usually use a remote trigger on the rare occaisons when I use pentax DSLR. However, some authorities consider that pentax is able to handle this high a votage. In any case a voltage adaptor is readily available if you are unsure.

If you get into serious flash work you will probably find like the rest of us that the modern 'extra, super duper double auto TTL_PPPPTTL' or whatever, flash systems are an embuggerance that you don't need and which takes more away from your creative work. So gear like the Sunpak will serve you just fine. The gun can run from mains but usually takes 6 'AA' batteries. This works in nicely with the 'AA' rechargeables that you probably use in your K100, and use of 2500 mAh 'Energisers' gives more or less instant re-flash and/or fast sequences of flashes for multi image work.

Remember that the kx is new and massively overpriced compared to the opposition. Also, it's a revamp of the km horror and bits of it don't really work such as the poorly implemented video, unusable live-view and battery problems.

At least wait a bit until it either it bombs and the price drops massively (like km) or the opposition makes a much better item for the same or less money.

At least k20 worked properly and was reasonably well designed, if a bit plain vanilla.

Interesting,...although I can't discern what might have prompted you to post on thgis subject.

I can understand your reticence to use unsubtle sensationalism (if I have understood your words) in place of artistry, and I admire your integrity. However, when looking at fashion photography I am struck by the lack of real feminity in most of the photography. I have heard it said that women don't dress to please men, they dress to impress or intimidate other women. Perhaps this explains why there is such a shortfall in the aspects of the female body as dipicted by 'Vogue' and by 'Men Only'. I suspect that the real area of visual feminity is somwhere in the middle of the two extremes and that both approaches are about 'packaging' of womanhood as distinct from reality.

It is interesting that the fashion world requires women/models to lack any sensuality of physical shape,..anything which might appeal to "heterosexual males" as you put it. I have never been able to work out why we have to always deny the appeal of a womans body to normal mens minds. it is, after all, programmed into us to find the female body appealing and women are well aware if this and are not adverse to using it against us!

The real criteria, surely, is good taste,.......but this is a very subjective matter for different people. What one man/woman may find 'tacky' another may find very apealing,...and yet another person may find it BOTH tacky and appealing!

If breats are appealing to men and have the capacity to move their feelings and emotions (and they do!) then why, as a photographer, do you hold back from using this valuable visual seasoning?

Actually Ben, it sounds vey 'English' to me......!!

Yes but all pentax cameras are much over priced even the badly designed ones like the km abortion. Wait a bit longer,..perhaps till after Christmas and the price will probably drop as pentax dealers and sellers will need to get shot of the duff stuff like the km in order to flog kx.

Well I'm not happy for any of my work to be seen simply on someones screen, so it all goes out as large prints of sometimes carefully handled files for printing...

........I only put 'stuff' on the web......

If you are only going to put stuff on the web then you don't even need a *ist, or any DSLR...any digicam will do. I use a lumix FX150 and only use 'half the pixels',..it makes superb files for the web that are more than adequate in every dept and people rave over the pix I send.

"...and I want an M9.."

.....Yeah,...well, welcome to the club..!!

The only thing is that when the secondhand M9's start to become within reach, there will probably be more and better FF dslr's about as they are gettign better all the time. Full-frame is the interesting area in my view as I don't see a future for APS-C for serious photographers,..and, i dont actually think the makers have ever really been behind it either since there are still few wide-angles and the viewfinders have never been developed properly by any one of the makers etc.

....Only thing is, I have always hated the 35mm (style) SLR and it's my least favourite camera type......