Don, you have explained with beautiful sensitivity why this is a family snapshot rather than a portrait. Chris has made the same points in a slightly more straightforth way. I have to agree with them. It's a family snap that means something to you. As such, it's utterly irrelevant what others think. Keep it for the sake of you and your family, you have no need to seek approval from others.

Duncan

I've tried the "set at infinity and rely on massive DoF" tactic in the past. I won't say it doesn't work at all, but it doesn't work at the kind of ranges you typically get at airshows unless you're doing pictures of VERY distant parts of the display. You'd be surprised how accurate the focus point has got to be to get a sharp shot.

I don't really know why this is, I've seen the DoF calculators before, and used lenses with DoF scales on them too. I'm not going to enter into arguments over theoretical distances which should be infocus. I observed one such thread on DePressing Review recently where some guy had taken an incoming Tornado very well indeed and he'd commented how well the AF tracked the plane at about 160kts. He was blasted by know-it-alls quoting theoretical DoF figures and saying the AF performance was nothing to do with it.

All I know is that in my real world experience, shooting aircraft at typical airshow flightline distances, you need to get the focus point right, "infinity and hope" just does not produce the same quality of results. It's hard enough getting a few keepers of planes in flight anyway, using this technique will reduce your keeper rate to virtually nil if the planes are at a realistic distance.

BTW, nice helicopter shot under the circumstances. You've done well to get this much detail on such a flatly lit day.

Duncan

I used to be a die hard fervent jpeg evangelist "Life's too short for raw, why do I want to spend ages processing each picture I take, etc....." Then, I had a revelation. I found that I could shoot a whole card full of raw files, import them into Pentax Photo Lab (supplied free with your camera), select all files and with just one click process them all as though they'd been shot as in-camera jpegs with no messing about. Shoot raw, import, select all, process. Bingo! Done!

I'd got a whole bunch of files just like I used to have but I also had the raw files to process individually those that I felt merited the extra attention, giving me the best of both worlds. Initially this was the approach I adopted, run the whole lot through PPL as though they were in-cam jpegs, and just mess about with a few raw files later. Over the last couple of years I've become far more proficient at raw processing, and went through a very steep learning curve with Capture One 3.7 (I now use 4.1). These days I never touch PPL and am ruthless with my culling of duds. If it's not good enough to warrant individual attention it gets deleted.

So, my advice is to shoot raw. If you're not sure about the finer details of processing them, stick it through PPL and you'll get the same output as if you'd shot jpeg. You've still got the raw file to go back to later once you've learned the finer points of your chosen raw processing package.

I was kicking myself because my "Ghent Fish Market" shot for last week's comp was shot as in camera jpeg and I know I'd have been able to do a much better processing job if I'd had the raw file available.

Duncan

Agree with John that a GOOD triod is essential for macro work, I'll second his recommendation of a Manfrotto 055 too, don't waste your money on the path of cheap tripods and constant upgrading like I did. You're far better off financially biting a very hard bullet and getting it right first time.

Love the composition of the daisy shot, if that's what it is, I'm talking about number 3. Shame the light isn't fully on hte flower, and the bug adds a really nice touch. Considdering this is hand-held it's remarkably sharp.

Duncan

Thanks for the feedback guys. Given the rarity of it happening, I doubt if it would be worth sending back. The chances of it happening whilst it's away being examined are slim indeed. I'll just live with it.

Duncan

After seeing Duncan knifton's problems in another thread it reminded me of a bit of a funny I have with my K10D. Very rarely, it will randomly put itself into sensor cleaning mode. I'm not touching the camera at the time, it's switched on, but has put itself to sleep and in P mode on the dial. Without me doing anything at all, I'll hear the mirror slap up and looking at the top panel LCD it will say "Cln". It has decided to put itself into sensor clean mode entirely of its own accord. It will do this with either my Pentax 16-45, Tamron 24-135 or Sigma 105, so I don't think it's lens fit related. It does it with either the genuine Pentax battery, or with the pattern 7dayshop battery, so I don't think it's battery related. The battery is showing as full on the meter by the way.

It's done this maybe 6 times in the 18 months I've had the camera, and is easily put right by switching off and then back on again, so it's not a major issue for me. I just wondered if anybody else has seen this problem.

Duncan

The line up for F'bro looks a bit tame this year. I'll be at RIAT Fairford next month so hope to get some good material.

Don't know how good the 55-300 is but I find that knocking back the zoom on my Sigma 135-400 to no more than 300 and cropping the resulting frame gives better results than using the zoom on max extension. 300mm may not be long enough for some parts of the display. You'll still get some good stuff, but you may get a bit frustrated during some of the more distant bits. Good luck. Take lots of cards, make sure you battery is fully charged, take a spare battery, don't waste battery on chimping and blat away on continuous 3fps.

Duncan

I stick to spot metering for the formations, mainly because I'm so busy concentrating on what's going on that I forget to switch . Having said that, it's a lot easier to switch with a K10D than it was on the DS - diving into menus part way through a display sequence was not an option with that camera and I guess I never got into the habit of switching metering modes once I'd learned what worked. I used to get a lot of black outlines in my film days at airshows.

I force centre point AF and try and get it to lock focus (AF-C BTW) on a 'plane in the centre of the frame. Spot metering on even a small plane in the frame seems to bias the metering sufficiently to stop silhouetting when used in conjunction with some positive compensation. Together with shooting raw and adjusting in post-process you can rescue some pretty bad errors.

Duncan

Unless you're shooting with a Fuji S5 you are probably going to get some degree of burn out. A lot depends on the conditions on the day, how blue the sky is and probably most importantly, where the sun is in relation to you and the subject. If you have the sun off slightly behind your shoulder (but not directly behind) and a clear blue sky, you won't get significant burn out. Under other conditions such as a cloudy overcast sky, you will get significant burn out, but ask yourself the question "Are you taking a picture of an aeroplane or are you taking a picture of the sky that just happens ot have an aeroplane in it?" Adjust your degree of exposure compensation to suit the answer you give yourself. If it's the 'plane that is of interest, then dial it up. In most cases I'd rather see a burnt out sky and a clearly visible 'plane than a black series of dots.

This is one example of where I thought the sky held a bit more interest:




One where you can get both sky and plane(s) right:




If the light is flat, you've got to accept some dgree of burnout, though if it's flat dull grey this can actually help.




Flares can fool the metering very badly, was glad to get this right (major crop on the original, hence softness):




One of my all time favourites:




Sorry to Unlocker for the thread hijack, but thought these may illustrate the points being questioned.

If you look on some of the UK airshow photo fora there's some very heated debate over taking photos from outside the airfield perimeter. At Old Warden the angle of the flight line is awful for photography because the direction of the light is completely wrong. As a result, there's many who take photos from outside the airfield (and therefor not paying to get in) and then go on to sell the pictures to agencies etc. This causes a great deal of acrimony and accusations of "sponging" etc. But, the fact is, if you're inside, you simply can't get decent photos because of the direction of the sun at the time the displays are held.

Duncan

Very good indeed for a first attempt at aviation. You've got the exposure better than many first timers and better than some with quite a bit of experience. There's still some silhouetting on the wider formation shots, which is a very common trait. For airshows, I dial in +1.0 or sometimes +1.3 exposure compensation on the K10D and select spot metering. This reduces the tendency for black outline shapes. I also select centre point AF as otherwise the AF can hunt around, especially on formation shots.

Hope this helps in the future. Keep it up, there's some great potential at airshows.

Duncan