Combining exposures in an HDR program may be the tool you need to get
the results you want. But that doesn't mean it has to LOOK like an HDR
image when you're finished.
I'm not sure what camera you're using (other than it's one that can
mount Pentax lenses), but I'm pretty sure that all Pentax DSLRs since
the K-7 have had a built in HDR function that you might want to
experiment with. It's not exactly "all in one exposure", but it's about
as close as I think you can get in camera.
I think the DA 50/1.8 is an beautiful lens. It'll probably vignette if
Pentax ever does deliver a FF DSLR, but if it vignettes too much I've
got a FA50/1.4 as plan B.
On 9/21/2014 2:37 PM, Ciprian Dorin Craciun wrote:
Hello all! [At the end of the email there is a short detour about
the Pentax DA 50mm f/1.8, and providing some context for the PESO.]
The PESO... After the dark set over the riverbank, while
stumbling in the dark (the lights on my side weren't working), I've
looked to the other side and found the restaurant so welcoming, luring
me with it's warm light. The outcome is below (~200 KiB):
http://data.volution.ro/ciprian/bdf753de58c560bc/395c04795f9e801b/variant-a--x800.jpg
However I'm uncertain about a few things and wanted to get your feedback:
* The lights are blown out --- although only the lamps and not the
resulting starbusts --- and if I wanted to retain some detail I'm
afraid the surrounding would have been pushed to shadows. Moreover
one of the lamps was almost embedded in a tree, making the leafs glow.
How would you proceed in such a situation? One thought would be
multiple exposures and then layers in post-processing, but I would
like to get all in one exposure...
* I decided to pull-up the shadows and have some visible details
on the riverbank. However this diminishes the warm light of the
restaurant, and the scene looks more like in the evening than after
the sun set... Should I have went for a more contrasting processing?
* I preferred to keep the saturation low enough to have the trees
green-ish, and only pull-up on the reds (for the lights). However
this makes the picture look a little bit "washed", but on the other
hand I find it does make it seem more "peaceful".
* I have a faint feeling that the resulting picture looks HDR-ish,
which was not my intention.
For those interested in comparing it with the original, I put
below the links to the exports from both RawTherapee and `dcraw`
without any additional processing except the "auto-magic" settings
(less than 200 KiB each):
http://data.volution.ro/ciprian/bdf753de58c560bc/395c04795f9e801b/export-rawtherapee--x800.jpg
http://data.volution.ro/ciprian/bdf753de58c560bc/395c04795f9e801b/export-dcraw--x800.jpg
For the the raw (~ 13 MiB) and other files you can look in:
http://data.volution.ro/ciprian/bdf753de58c560bc/395c04795f9e801b
Thanks for your time and I welcome any feedback,
Ciprian.
P.S.: About the Pentax DA 50mm f/1.8 lens... So, Friday I've
just received my first non-kit lens, a Pentax DA 50mm f/1.8, which
although quite cheap I hope will prove of better optical quality (i.e.
sharpness at over f/3.2-4) than the kit ones. Especially than the
Pentax DA 50-200mm WR, which although I've found I was using it (at
~50mm) more than the corresponding 18-55 one, is quite soft (including
at f/8) for "far" subjects (i.e. more than 5m maybe).
Anyway... Because I've got home only late, I didn't manage to try
it out while there actually light, I've decided to try a couple
low-light and some long exposure exposures. My first impression is
that this could be my "all-around" lens:
* the focal length is almost just right to exclude all the city
clutter from the photo; (maybe a little bit longer would have been
better;)
* light and small (and cheap) enough;
* "fast" enough (but kind of softer) when you need it;
* sharp enough (especially at f/4 or f/8);
I two words: good enough!
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Religion - Answers we must never question.
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