[smarti77]

This was one of the first shots I took on my Pentax *ist DS which I bought a few days ago. I know its not the best camera around but it an overdue upgrade from my MZ50...
Photo was taken in my backyard (Adelaide, South Australia).

I have only just discovered this forum and look forward to getting some great advice.

[slejhamer]

Hi and welcome! Careful you don't get stung!

[Zig]

Good for you buddy! Welcome aboard the boards!

[muzza]

There are a few of us around here that use Pentax. I have the DS too...I love it.

[EnglishBob]

Welcome to Shuttertalk, I look forward to seeing more of your work

[shuttertalk]

Hey Smarti, congrats on the new camera - it's plenty good from what I've heard.

Nice capture with the pic - it's quite hard shooting flowers and insects together...

And welcome to Shuttertalk!

[Don Schaeffer]

Welcome to the forum. The photo is very bright and colorful. If you want thorough critique you should post in one of the more critical forums.

Is that a film or digital camera?

--Don

[smarti77]

Thanks for the feedback.

Don, this was taken on digital with my new Pentax *ist DS. Edited it slightly by saturating the colour as the pink flower was a little dull. I haven't learned alot about controlling the overexposure in the lower petals yet...

Photographing the most simple things is fun again because I can experiment and take fifty rubbish photos and simply delete them before I achieve what I set out to. I still have half a roll in the old camera but that will not be finished off any time soon.

[Petographer]

Welcome to the forum smarti. I like your avatar. I assume thats an actual sign.

[Kombisaurus]

Welcome Smarti..

Lovely bright colours and soft background in your pic
No need to make excuses for using a *ist DS... from what I know of it its a fine camera... and its the photographer that makes far more difference anyway.

I haven't learned alot about controlling the overexposure in the lower petals yet...

I don't know what image editing software you use, but here is an introduction to using "curves" in Photoshop which will probably be the most flexible tool for selectively adjusting exposure in various parts of your images after you've taken them. Although this article is specific to Photoshop, just about every graphics program worth its salt these days includes a "Curve" or "Tone Curve" function which works in the same way.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutori...imer.shtml

Its worth checking out many of the other articles and tutorials there too - its a great resource full of fantastic advice.

Cheers
Adrian

[smarti77]

Thanks Adrian - I just downloaded the 30 day trial of photoshop. I've only had a film camera in the past so I'm looking forward to having more control. I wasn't that impressed by the software provided by pentax with the camera.

[Don Schaeffer]

Try underexposing everything by half stop or full stop. You can do a little compensating post process.