Just for Fun No C&C will be given: ZooMontana

A nice day the Magic City found me at the local zoo practicing shooting wildlife. Of course it is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel. Still it was a nice day to be outside with a camera in one's hand. K20D + Sigma 100-300 f/4 using TAv mode.

Steve, these pictures are too good to show all in one go and it seems they get overlooked. So i'll try to focus on just one picture at a time. First the lone wolf in the snow.




The wolf in the winter is designed to be hard to spot against the remnants of bushes in the winter and patches of snow against rocks. Here we see this success of nature and the blessed thing is successfully hidden. god for the wold, bad for the photographer. I thought it might be an idea to use a few simple PS maneuvers to distinguish the light wolf better from the b.g. So I blurred changed the contrast with a slight S curve and then made two copies, one blurred and the other sharpened. Then I used a mask to allow the sharpened layer to show through in the wolf and adjacent grasses and, to a lesser extent, in the fallen tree trunk.

At the end, I decreased the percent of each effect used, as I always do and then used the result in a final masked layer where I allowed the back of each limb and the lower portion of the wolf's coat to show through, a tad darker, enhancing the 3D appearance.

Here's a jpg of the result.

I agree with Asher. In terms of providing any useful comments, with this many pictures posted together, it's hard to know where to start. Since one of OPF's goals is to provide constructive feedback, it is preferable to post either a single shot in a thread, or perhaps 1 or 2 variations on the same shot if that is relevant.

By the way, what is "TAv" mode on your camera? I'm not familiar with that particular terminology.

Thanks for the comment Don. I will insert just one or two images per post. Starting with the K10D Pentax included the TAv mode to go with Sv, Tv, and Av modes. TAv mode allows the photographer to set the shutter speed and aperture while the camera sets the ISO for the correct exposure. It's pretty useful to have another option for camera settings. I've been using the Manual mode most often but sometimes I let the camera do some of the work.

Asher, thanks for demonstrating the possibilities in using layers. I really need a class on layers, oh heck, on all post processing in CS4.

Steve Robinson said:

TAv mode allows the photographer to set the shutter speed and aperture while the camera sets the ISO for the correct exposure. It's pretty useful to have another option for camera settings. I've been using the Manual mode most often but sometimes I let the camera do some of the work.

Click to expand...

This is something I have been wanting Canon to add to their cameras for a while now. Some of the more recent ones may have some function like this, but I'm not sure. I agree with you - under certain circumstances, this could be a very useful option!

I shoot in Manual Mode probably 95%+ of the time, but if this were an option, I might use TAv more, and use EV Compensation to tweak the exposure. I assume that when you're in this mode, and you adjust EV Compensation, that it would effect the ISO chosen? For example, if you've set it for 1/500 second, f/4, and the unmodified exposure would require ISO 800, and you then wanted -1EV Comp, that it would drop ISO to 400?

Steve Robinson said:

Starting with the K10D Pentax included the TAv mode to go with Sv, Tv, and Av modes. TAv mode allows the photographer to set the shutter speed and aperture while the camera sets the ISO for the correct exposure.

Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

I agree that it can sometimes come in handy to have an aditional "auto ISO" option.

A small warning though, although I'm not sure if it applies to the specific Pentax implementation on the K10D. On many cameras, the intermediate ISO settings may be more noisy than the next higher full increment ISO. On most Canon models for instance, ISO125 may be noisier than ISO 200.

Cheers,
Bart

Thanks Don and Bart. Don, you are correct, the ISO will change with a +/- EV. Bart, I haven't noticed much difference in noise between intermediate ISO's but I will keep an eye on it.