Photos taken by Pentax cameras for tech. discussion - Season III

[detritus]

anyone here shooting concerts regularly or often?

recently upgrade my body to K5 and tried to shoot the outdoor performance at esplanade with my DA 55300.
1st try seems worst then on my Kx. Noise was pretty bad, might have been because i was using iso6400 and had high iso NR turned on. focusing was bad, had review the pics today. was pretty sure i focus on the performers face for at least 95% of the time but the pics seems to say otherwise.

other setting was spot metering, center focus & AV mode.Did tried TVAV earlier on but iso was jumping all around so switch back to AV. And i though last night (24-Dec) had semi decent lighting.

any advise can be given? kinda hook on shooting at the outdoor theaters for over a year plus already, will shoot there whenever i have the chance on weekends.

want to improve the % of keepers. have a 2875 F2.8 tamron, would that do assuming i am in the 1st or 2nd row of the theaters ?

below are some sample. resize only and no pp done on it. gears used are as written above.

DA55-300 wouldn't have been my choice for this - aperture is too small. and ISO6400 under such conditions is REALLY pushing your equipment to the limits :sweat:

if u're really into concert shoot, a sigma 70-200 f2.8 or a da*60-250 f4 would suit u. but mind u, those are pretty big lenses. a monopod or tripod would be useful to reduce fatigue.

can share a bit more about your PP workflow? or are u shooting jpeg direct?

i'm not absolutely certain because i don't know what kind of lighting u were dealing with that day... but i would normally switch off NR, shoot at ISO3200, and then bump up exposure in post followed by some simple de-noise.

 

[creampuff]

Cubicon, familiarise yourself with your gear first. Why did you switch off high ISO NR? It is there on the camera for a reason, use it. If not get it fixed during post processing. At such extremely dim lighting and at the long end of the zoom range, it is easy to miss focus, especially when the WB is all over the place. If you want to succeed at this kind of shooting, you need to pick your spots, get better gear (fast lenses, support, etc.), shoot plenty, keep working on your technique and research what other successful photographers do. You want a hard dose of reality? Most successful working shooters in a particular genre will not freely give out such info and even if they did, one might not fully make sense of it all especially if you're still grappling with how to use the basic features of the camera.

 

[cubicon]

Cubicon, familiarise yourself with your gear first. Why did you switch off high ISO NR? It is there on the camera for a reason, use it. If not get it fixed during post processing. At such extremely dim lighting and at the long end of the zoom range, it is easy to miss focus, especially when the WB is all over the place. If you want to succeed at this kind of shooting, you need to pick your spots, get better gear (fast lenses, support, etc.), shoot plenty, keep working on your technique and research what other successful photographers do. You want a hard dose of reality? Most successful working shooters in a particular genre will not freely give out such info and even if they did, one might not fully make sense of it all especially if you're still grappling with how to use the basic features of the camera.

i read on another pentax forum or was it here. that high iso NR will further compromise the quality. its better to shoot with it off and use software for noise reduction. I have been reading abit but the gears they use are normally nikon or canon, maybe i am not searching in the right place. but end of the day its just a hobby, not looking to earn any bucks out of it anway and yeah, prob i need to feel my k5 abit more after transiting from a kx and play around with the settings.

 

[pinholecam]

anyone here shooting concerts regularly or often?

recently upgrade my body to K5 and tried to shoot the outdoor performance at esplanade with my DA 55300.
1st try seems worst then on my Kx. Noise was pretty bad, might have been because i was using iso6400 and had high iso NR turned on. focusing was bad, had review the pics today. was pretty sure i focus on the performers face for at least 95% of the time but the pics seems to say otherwise.

other setting was spot metering, center focus & AV mode.Did tried TVAV earlier on but iso was jumping all around so switch back to AV. And i though last night (24-Dec) had semi decent lighting.

any advise can be given? kinda hook on shooting at the outdoor theaters for over a year plus already, will shoot there whenever i have the chance on weekends.

want to improve the % of keepers. have a 2875 F2.8 tamron, would that do assuming i am in the 1st or 2nd row of the theaters ?

below are some sample. resize only and no pp done on it. gears used are as written above.

hope i did post in the correct section.

You might want to check if the lens/camera combo is FF/BF.

The fast aperture of the Tamron 28-75/2.8 will certainly help.
Those concerts are free and free seating anyway, so I think moving to the 1st-2nd row would be a good idea.

 

[machiavellian]

Having shot a lot of concerts, I rather shoot it with manual fast primes, such as the 50 and 135, than AF. Cause in dim situations, AF isn't all that reliable. Having said that, I do have a Tamron 28-75 and it is a good lens for shooting night concerts/gigs. However, when it focus hunts, that's when I switch it to Manual Focus or change to a prime.

And I always shoot Manual mode, because lighting conditions is very inconsistent.

 

[machiavellian]

I usually shoot concerts with a 15/55/135 lens combo. And a 28-75 if I'm lazy as backup. :bsmilie:

 

[pinholecam]

Had to clear leave before it was 'makan' off, so spent 1/2 a day at Orchard Rd soaking up the atmosphere.
Went for a long lens subject isolation effect using FA135/2.8

More here ...
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/stre...]-exploring-candid-streets-8.html#post7638093

 

[cubicon]

U guys must be damn close to the action ..... 135mm.

Will take note of the M focus thing, will try it out next round.

 

[creampuff]

i read on another pentax forum or was it here. that high iso NR will further compromise the quality. its better to shoot with it off and use software for noise reduction. I have been reading abit but the gears they use are normally nikon or canon, maybe i am not searching in the right place. but end of the day its just a hobby, not looking to earn any bucks out of it anway and yeah, prob i need to feel my k5 abit more after transiting from a kx and play around with the settings.

I dare say plenty of what is written on pentaxforum is rubbish written by mostly old amateurs with very set and outdated shooting styles and methods... and most can't shoot for nuts.
I feel many shooters in this part of the world are way ahead of the curve as far as capability and skill level are concerned. You need to experiment, work with what you have and develop your own style. Going by the images posted, so many Pentax CS members here have shown tremendous growth creatively speaking and that's reflected in the quality of their images that they post. Yes having the right gear does help but if you got no creativity and technique, even the best gear is wasted.

 

[maverickh]

As usual another morning spend at Singapore Botanic Garden. Decided to take out this rarely utilised lens for a workout. The results did not fail me.

1.


IMGP2367 by maverick_h, on Flickr

 

[maverickh]

2.



IMGP2341 by maverick_h, on Flickr

 

[maverickh]

3.


IMGP2248 by maverick_h, on Flickr

 

[maverickh]

Taken at f/2.2

4.


IMGP2398 by maverick_h, on Flickr

 

[simon6z]

3.


IMGP2248 by maverick_h, on Flickr

Ooooo A*135 F1.8 man, saw in pentaxforum JUST hahahaha

 

[edutilos-]

i read on another pentax forum or was it here. that high iso NR will further compromise the quality. its better to shoot with it off and use software for noise reduction. I have been reading abit but the gears they use are normally nikon or canon, maybe i am not searching in the right place. but end of the day its just a hobby, not looking to earn any bucks out of it anway and yeah, prob i need to feel my k5 abit more after transiting from a kx and play around with the settings.

This only applies when in-camera NR is over-done.

Pentax does a fine balance. It is not untrue that the good noise reduction software like Noise Ninja will give a marginally better result, but firstly, not many people have that software in the first place; and secondly, it is time consuming if you have a lot of images.

 

[edutilos-]

if u don't agree with the approach taken with in camera NR, just point that out. if u have pictures that demonstrates the superiority of in camera NR over photoshop or photoshop plugins, please share.

With reference to my last post, I dare say the in-camera NR trumps Photoshop NR anyday. Photoshop NR is just quite nonsensical, imho. :bsmilie:

 

[detritus]

With reference to my last post, I dare say the in-camera NR trumps Photoshop NR anyday. Photoshop NR is just quite nonsensical, imho. :bsmilie:

haha... yes. i find the CS5 one quite a blunt instrument, but useful when there's no choice - i.e. when dealing with RAW from an older camera.

been mulling over whether to invest in topaz denoise as well. have u tried it?

 

[edutilos-]

haha... yes. i find the CS5 one quite a blunt instrument, but useful when there's no choice - i.e. when dealing with RAW from an older camera.

been mulling over whether to invest in topaz denoise as well. have u tried it?

I use Noise Ninja... But sometimes really have to adjust to taste to retain detail, or layer it...

Of course customised NR will be best, but Pentax in-camera NR is really a quick-fix solution that does that job I'd say 90% of the way.

 

[cubicon]

but i would say the high iso nr is good until certain value until things go haywire? maybe 6400 would be on the boarder line usable? i dunno ... just thinking out loud.

 

[kengoh]

Hi Ken do u mind me joining for birding ?

No prob, but have not been birding in SG for weeks already. :sweat:
Will be going Thailand again during CNY week. ;p