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RE: Film photography can be so frustrating!!
In my humble opinion, the first three photos are spot on. Then there is a slight focus problem, and an under exposure with the sunset shot. This is because there is a lot of very light areas in the picture that are contrasting dark shadows. Whenever you shoot in a situation like this it is good to overexpose 1 step (seems to be my standard advice).
Which Pentax are you using exactly? I might know some more tricks.
In general I think filmphotography can be quite cheap; if you shoot BY FAR less than on the digital camera... I work on large format (8x10); each sheet of film is 30 €. But I have such fantastic control when taking a picture that I only take the 20 or so that are excellent/year...
Drop me a line, I'm always happy to help.
$30 per sheet!! I guess you really do have to pick your shots...
Very pleased that you liked the first 3, they were my favourites of what was otherwise a bad bunch. Quite annoyed with the focus issue as I thought I was concentrating quite hard to get that part right and with the indicator leading the way I haven't many excuses. I'll keep tweaking the exposure and your comment about the sunset photo has jogged my memory about pointing the camera at a certain part of the frame and setting the exposure there before moving back to the part of the frame that asks for different exposure(Hope I'm making sense there).
I'm using a Pentax P30 so if you do know any trick that would be great.
Thanks for the advice @captainklaus it's much appreciated.
Your memory about 'taking' an exposure is correct; if you pick your metering from the dark spots of the picture your exposure will always be slightly over, and thus on the safe side.Just keep the shutter pressed slightly for the camera to keep the exposure.
For focussing I'd train my eye and ignore those indicators. Maybe you have a dark lens, which makees focussing quite hard; what's the numbers of your lens?
The first three shots show one of the specialities of film photography: The transition from focus to out-of-focus still is the most beautiful!
Yes that's the trick I was thinking of and I think my Pentax has a feature that saves the exposure level chosen for the next shot.
Ok, I'll list the lense I use for both my Pentax and Olympus. I'll leave out my Tamron zoom lens as I think this has foggy lenses and I'm going to replace it.
Pentax lenses I have are as follows;
35 - 70mm 1 : 3.5 - 4.5 (SMC Pentax -f zoom)
SMC Pentax-A 1 : 1.7 50mm
Lenses for my Olympus -
Olympus OM-system Zuiko Auto-s 50mm 1 : 1.8
Olympus OM system S Zuiko Auto-zoom 35-70mm1 : 4
As well as these I'm looking to buy an adaptor for my Pentax to allow me to use M42 thread lenses. This is because I have a MC Pancolar 1.8/50 Carl Zeiss Jena DDR. I've been told it is a decent lens and wanted to use it eventually. I could just sell it and buy a pentax lens with the money I raise from it.
While I've got your ear I'd like to ask about a zoom lens I have my eye on...
SIGMA 75-300mm f/4-5.6 PENTAX K AF Mount Camera Lens In Case
It's for sale on Ebay for a starting bid of £10. I'm not sure what it's worth but here is the spec, hopefully you can tell me if it's worth bidding on.
Thanks for any advice you can give :)
I would stick to the SMC 50mm/1.8 you have; upgrading to the Carl Zeiss won't make much sense, the differences are tiny.
I would avoid Zoom lenses whenever you can; they are usually quite dark and are a bad compromise.
In straight photography there is a strong idea of using 1 lens only; while I'm not the one for dogmas, I think it is a good approach.
Instead of zooming you change your position (which you should do a lot anyways!); this goes well with the slow approach of filmphotography.
50mm is a bit of a boring focal length to some; as an alternativ you could look at a cheap 35mm....
I wouldn't start spending 'serious' money on a slightly better lens, for now...
One more thing:
When taking a picture, try very hard to imagine how it will look as a finished print or on monitor. Once you have the image ready, try to remember how you imagined it, and what came out differently. If you make a habit out of this, and stretch your imagination, you will learn faster which picture is worth taking, and which not.
Thank you very much for this advice and I'll make sure to put it to good use. The idea of just using one lens seems a little rigid to me but I do see why, that way I get to really understand the lens I'm using and how it works with my camera.
I'll keep my eye out for a 35mm lens as maybe I will prefer that look, who knows. I guess you have to try these things out when you begin and then decide on a weapon to master :)
Thanks again @captainklaus!
i second to the 35mm lens...getting things on focus will be much easier...i think it will help a lot to get the exposure right if you forget the camera's meter and read the light yourself...but in the end of the day the best tip is 1 camera 1 lens...
Thanks and I'm currently trawling through ebay for a 35mm lens :) I guess I'll put the 50mm on my Olympus and the 35mm on my Pentax. In the meantime I think I'll buy a roll of film and try taking the shots without using any of the meters.
watch this video
:-)