K100DS & K 135 2.5 do a concerto.

[Swift1]

My brother in law did the first of his masters recitals in French Horn last night. I took along my borrowed K100D Super and my K135 2.5. Thee lighting was poor, 1/60s, ISO 1600 @ f/2.5 was the best I could get without using the flash which would be a no-no. Getting focus was very difficult and out of 20 shot probably 8 are in focus.

After using a K10 for over a year and then borrowing the K100D, I am very impressed with the high ISO performance compared to the K10. Someone with more skill than me might have done it but I don't think my K10 would get this shot without a lot more noise.

Here is my favourite of the evening.

Shot RAW, processed in ACDSee Prro 3 beta, some sharpeening and noise reduction applied.



Thanks for looking,

Swift1

 

[neil holmes]

My brother in law did the first of his masters recitals in French Horn last night. I took along my borrowed K100D Super and my K135 2.5. Thee lighting was poor, 1/60s, ISO 1600 @ f/2.5 was the best I could get without using the flash which would be a no-no. Getting focus was very difficult and out of 20 shot probably 8 are in focus.

After using a K10 for over a year and then borrowing the K100D, I am very impressed with the high ISO performance compared to the K10. Someone with more skill than me might have done it but I don't think my K10 would get this shot without a lot more noise.

I would not say more skill, maybe more practice (at live music).

Not bad.

I would have taken it from an angle rather than straight on.

I would have used iso 3200 and a little exposure compenstaion (but i shoot jpegs...the K100d is a good jpeg camera.) I would also have use afs with that lens to trap focus, works well, even in poor light.

K100d is a great live music camera. I wish I had a working one this weekend to shoot a Jazz and Blues Festival...alas it will be the IST*D for me.

Here is my favourite of the evening.

Shot RAW, processed in ACDSee Prro 3 beta, some sharpeening and noise reduction applied.



Thanks for looking,

Thanks for posting.

Swift1

neil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26884588@N00/

 

[Swift1]

Thanks for the tips Neil. We were in a church and I couldn't really move much so didn't have a lot of choice on the composition.
Will try using trap focus, I should have thought of doing it then but didn't.

Swift1

 

[Marc Sabatella]

Will try using trap focus, I should have thought of doing it then but didn't.

FWIW, I don't find it all that useful in concert photography. For one thing, it suffers the same flaw as AF - namely, that it is as likely to choose to focus on the horn instead of the face, and that's rarely what you want. It also only works with the center focus point, so it rules out many of the best composition that might have had the subject slightly off-center. And finally, in concert photography, timing is often everything - snapping the shutter at just the right moment. Focus trap leaves too much up to chance that department.

So I think you did just fine as is. Although I'd say you probably could have bumped up the exposure and pushed the white balance to the left (or set it by clicking on his white collar) in ACDSee, and maybe increased contrast (with either the contrast slider or an curve) and improved the image a bit.

--
Marc Sabatella
http://www.marcsabatella.com/
Blog: http://marcsabatella.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcsabatella/

 

[neil holmes]

Will try using trap focus, I should have thought of doing it then but didn't.

FWIW, I don't find it all that useful in concert photography. For one thing, it suffers the same flaw as AF - namely, that it is as likely to choose to focus on the horn instead of the face, and that's rarely what you want. It also only works with the center focus point, so it rules out many of the best composition that might have had the subject slightly off-center. And finally, in concert photography, timing is often everything - snapping the shutter at just the right moment. Focus trap leaves too much up to chance that department.

So I think you did just fine as is. Although I'd say you probably could have bumped up the exposure and pushed the white balance to the left (or set it by clicking on his white collar) in ACDSee, and maybe increased contrast (with either the contrast slider or an curve) and improved the image a bit.

Marc, I find it a little different to af as you control it and there is no motor hunting.

The other thing is that unless you have a focusing aid with a fast lens at least my eyes are no better and actually may be worse than the cameras "eyes" and i would miss focus more often than the camera does. It may not be for you but it is worth a try.

neil

--
Marc Sabatella
http://www.marcsabatella.com/
Blog: http://marcsabatella.blogspot.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcsabatella/

 

[Kurt Ingham]

I've found low light manual focus with the standard Pentax DSLR very difficult.
Kurt
Can anyone recommend a good replacement screen for this sort of work?

 

[Swift1]

Thanks Marc,

I suppose I could have bumped the exposure in PP, I did try a few shots at 3200 but didn't like the way they turned out. I chose to leave it a little dark because I think it is a more accurate representation of the actual seen. I agree with the WB needing a little tweaking though. I am still trying to figure out good PP techniques.

Swift1