On Sep 16, 2005, at 12:35 PM, Glen wrote:
The key is Natural color mode and Adobe RGB color space. Natural
color mode *ONLY* works in P, Tv, Av, and M exposure modes; Auto
Picture and all the program presets override the setting and go to
Vivid. The combination of these two settings give a broader gamut and
much more modest contrast, less loss of imaging quality from
highlight sharpening erosion and gamut clipping.
I can't find an option to set natural or vivid color mode. Is it
permanently set by Pentax for the various modes?
Record Menu, first item "Image Tone". By default, it's on
"Vivid" (brighter colored icon). The alternative is "Natural" (pastel
colored icon). If you set it and then use any of the program preset
modes (Auto Picture, etc) the camera will default it back to Vivid,
although the option will stay set. It will take effect in P, Tv, Av
and M modes.
I've been keeping my DS set to Adobe color space lately. Is there
any circumstance where sRGB would be a better choice?
sRGB is a better pick if you're looking to take JPEGs directly from
the camera and print them without any editing at all, typically
through PictBridge or at a printing kiosk. Otherwise, A-RGB is much
better for anything you're going to edit in Photoshop. (If you're
saving in RAW mode, it's inconsequential as you'll tell the RAW
conversion processor what output colorspace to render to.)
As for the saturation, sharpness, and contrast settings -- these
are all set to their midpoint. Should I be using different settings
for better JPEG quality?
If you're saving in JPEG format, you have to consider these
parameters to be just as important as ISO, aperture, and shutter time
to get the best results. They don't have to be tweaked as much or as
often, but they do need to be adjusted to accommodate wide variations
in contrast and light levels. White balance, too.
That's one of the reasons RAW is so much preferable: you can pretty
much ignore settings other than ISO, aperture, shutter time and focus
because you'll control the rendering parameters after you take home
the exposures.
Godfrey
