On Jun 20, 2012, at 9:53 PM, Walt Gilbert wrote: > On 6/20/2012 11:41 PM, Larry Colen wrote: >> On Jun 20, 2012, at 9:24 PM, Walt Gilbert wrote: >> >>> First off, apologies for the horrible pun of a title. >>> >>> Now, onto the photo. I took it today at the mimosa tree in my front yard. I >>> did some experimenting to see what kind of setup I need. I would've liked >>> the bee to have been a bit sharper, but I though maybe the blur would lend >>> a sense of motion. Just not sure if it works. >>> >>> http://www.flickriver.com/photos/walt_gilbert/7412081522/ >> That is not the worst picture I've seen this week. Very nice. > > Thanks, Larry! Can I quote you on that?
Sure thing. Any time you need a recommendation. How about: Walt isn't the worst photographer I've seen. Many of his pictures look better than if they'd been taken with an instamatic by a drunk on a three day binge. >>> K20D, Promaster 70-300/4-5.6, ISO 400, 1/400, f/8 >>> >>> I'm guessing I'm going to have to bump up the ISO and shutter speed enough >>> to compensate for another aperture stop at f/9 to get a little more DOF. >>> >>> I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions anyone has to offer. >> I don't know how much more you could push the ISO with the K20D. It's >> probably worth doing a test series with both the K20 and the K-x bracketing >> ISO, f-stop and shutter speed to see where the sweet spot is. > That's a good idea. I was kind of hesitant to go much higher than 400, but > that wouldn't be an issue with the K-x. I'll have to give it a shot and see > how it performs. The thing is, you need to know what your equipment can do, and it's limits under one kind of lighting won't be the same as under different lighting. In other words, just because it's noisy at ISO 1600 at 1/10Sec in a dimly lit room doesn't necessarily mean that it will be as noisy in sunlight at ISO 1600 at 1/100 Sec. For one thing, inside, the light has a lot more energy in the red channel, so you're pushing the blue channel a lot harder. With my camera, most of the noise showed up in the blue channel anyways. If you're photographing something with a lot of the signal in the blue channel, the noise won't be nearly as noticeable. At the very least, in a situation like this, if you have the chances, experiment. Try pushing the ISO harder, worst case you end up with some photos you have to delete lest they use up $.02 worth of hard drive. Have you picked up Lightroom 4 (or even 3) yet? It's ability to defeat noise in raw files is pretty impressive. Things that just didn't work for me with my K20 three years ago might be well within the ability of Lightroom 4 to correct. > >> >> The other option would be to try using a speedlight. You won't be able to >> get a shutterspeed faster than 1//160 on the camera, but the flash duration >> will be a lot shorter. If you were to try ISO 100, f/16 or f/22, at 1/125 >> or 1/160, then use the strobe to fill in, you should have enough light from >> the strobe at short distances to use the higher f/stop, you'll get an >> interesting mix of blur and frozen on the bee, and the background will be >> de-emphasized by being a couple stops under exposed. > I do have a hot shoe flash that I can use manually and will see what I can do > with it. I appreciate the ideas and tips. Hopefully most of the blossoms will > still be on the tree the next time I get a chance to do it. Got a busy, > early-starting workweek coming up -- beginning tomorrow. Congratulations. I hope it leaves you some time to spend with your new friend. > > Thanks again! > > -- Walt >> >> >>> Thanks! >>> >>> -- Walt >>> >>> -- >>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>> [email protected] >>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>> follow the directions. >> -- >> Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est >> >> >> >> >> > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
