Tons and tons of questions! haha..well maybe not that many!

[Stacey]

So I am totally new at photography...well, decent photography at any rate...I can use a point a shoot like no other! haha...I told a friend of mine that I want to do some "test" engagement shots for her and her fiance come fall. I have a Pentax K100d and I do love it and I can navigate my way around it alright I guess. If anyone has any tips or suggestions, I am ALL ears!

But anywho...he is very much into hunting/outdoors-y type and she is also...no so much that she hunts though. She is really into her flowers and whatnot. They both have 2 dogs that they absolutely adore (a yorkie and a lab) and I know I can incorporate them into the pictures somehow (like a backyard pic in front of some flowers) but I don't know what to do for anything else. We live in central IL so there really isn't any place for us to go. So I am open to suggestions? Anyone have any good ideas...well ideas in general? I don't know what to do with them. Hopefully it all goes well (I know I have plenty of time, I just want to know what I am going to do so I can run the stuff by her; she won't care regardless) but another friend of mine said that if all goes well and I feel comfortable she'd like me to take some of her and her family also...so yay for me! I hope! haha

But on top of that, I have just 2 lenses...the 18-55 that came with the camera and a 28-80 mm also.. I am wanting a 50mm so badly but I can't afford one that is specifically for Digital SLRs (the one I'm drooling over is over 200 bucks!) so does anyone know of an older film lens that I can use that will still do the trick nicely for portraits?

Thanks for all/any help you can throw my way! It's appreciated more than you know!



Thanks again~
Stacey

 

[Johnboy2978]

I have this lens and it is quite a nice sharp and fast lens. I use it frequently in weddings and also for portraits:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/40755-USA/Pentax_20817_Normal_SMCP_FA_50mm_f_1_4.html

Another really decent piece of glass is this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SMC-PENTAX-M-1-...ryZ15240QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

You can always find these little gems on ebay for under $20 and they are actually pretty nice. I used mine for a good while before getting the one above. Of course, you don't have AF which is mainly why I got the other one. It isn't a digital lens though and I've been refusing to buy digital ones so far. I still use film cameras sometimes and I don't like the idea of spending $500+ on a lens that I can't use on both.

As far as the engagement pics are concerned, shoot an hour or two before sundown with natural light. You may want to incorporate a reflector or two as well. For poses browse through some wedding photography sites and check out their engagement sections. Make a folder on your desktop and fill it with digital tear sheets and try to re-create the ones you like the most. Parks are a good place to go. I've only done one engagement shoot so far, with another one planned for Sept and used a park for the first one and may do that again.

 

[redchaser]

Stacey,

Per lenses. All of the Pentax DSLR's are backward compatable with all old Pentax lenses, and you can find some wonderful old glass for very little $$. You can find 50mm f1.7 manual focus for about $40 - $50 all over the place, this is an incredibly sharp and pretty darn fast lens.

It's manual focus, but the camera's focus indicator will still let you know when you've achieved focus (you may even be able to snap focus with the k100d). For metering and sr, when you mount the lens, you go into the shake reduction menu and set it for the focal length you are using, in the custom settings menu select "allow use of aperature ring". Put hte camera in M mode and manual focus. Once you have the camaera set up for the lens, shooting is quick and easy. To shoot, set your aperature, focus, press depth of field preview (green button on the k10d, should be similar on the k100) this will set the shutter speed for proper exposure with the aperature you selected, then snap.

There are thousands and thousands of high quality, sharp and fast manual lenses availabe for a fraction of what you will pay for new auto everything lenses. I am picking up manual lenses in focal lengths for things like landscapes, portraits and macro photo's since most of those situations allow ample time to focus and meter. For candids, action and wildlife I'll stick with the auto's.

Good luck,

Ron

 

[Stacey]

thanks a bunch you two! Any help is very much appreciated and you guys helped a bunch!
Thanks again!:hail:

 

[Stratman]

Hello Stacey, I have a K110D, which other than not having the shake reduction is identical to your camera. I bought a used SMC M 50MM f1.4 off of ebay, and it is a fantastic lens. If you're on a limited budget, and don't mind a bit of a learning curve to get the exposure correct, this, and the 50Mm f1.7 are good, inexpensive choices for some top quality glass for your Pentax. Here are a few shots i have taken with the 50MM f1.4.

 

[Stacey]

Thank you for posting the pictures, it helps to "see" what you are talking about a bit! (and what a darling little girl!)
I will defintely check ebay!
Thanks again!

 

[Stratman]

Thank you for posting the pictures, it helps to "see" what you are talking about a bit! (and what a darling little girl!)
I will defintely check ebay!
Thanks again!

Any time :mrgreen: And the lil' girl is my great niece, Sophie, quite photogenic when i can get her to hold still for more than a nanosecond, lol

 

[redchaser]

As mentioned above, there is a learing curve with exposure on M lenses with a K10d. It has been noticed that the K10d sometimes wants to overexpose when using M lenses. Now you can deal with this by shooting a test shot and chipping away, increasing shutter speed to get the right exposure, but an easy permanant fix for that has been found.

In the K10 d, you can change out the focus screen. Users have found that if you replace the focus screen with a focus screen from a *ds - NOT A SPLIT SCREEN TYPE (available at B&H for about $40) it solves the metering problem with M lenses and has no effect on metering with all other lenses.

So even if you replace the focus screen for $40 and pay $50 for a 50mm 1.7, you are set up with only a $90 investment, plus you are good to go for future "M" series lens purchases.

I've honestly been enjoying shooting (and getting better results) with my M lens than with my auto lens.

Tight Lines,

Ron