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Hey Folks,
So I'm really get into landscape photography. I'm not exactly sure what aperture to use. While f/22 gets everything in focus and creates the deepest DOF, I have heard that f/8-f/11 is the "sweet spot" for sharpness. I want to be able to make large prints someday. How do you balance a wide DOF but still get a sharp print?
I just got the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 and I'm excited to test it out.
Thanks!
Hi Steve, welcome to the site...
I use f16-22 for landscape, not only for dof but also to get longer exposures when i do seascapes, i have heard that one should focus a shot about 8 ft into the picture at a small aperture to get sharpness from front to back, have a chat with patrick smith on here, he seems to have got it nailed.
Terry.
patricksmith
Thanks. Patrick is so popular, I don't think he has time to reply. He lives really close to me and I aspire to do the kinda work he does.
I think I'll shoot for f/16 to get sharper images, and if I need less light, I'll just rely on an ND filter.
Although, each shot requires different settings. I may need f/22. I may need f/8. We'll see.
Thats the beauty of digital, you can experiment to your hearts content and it costs next to nothing, i sometimes will set the camera up and take 3-4 shots just changing the shutter speed to see what different effects i can get with waves.
I also live near Patrick and have been out on shoots with him on several occasions, a very knowledgeable person!
Terry.
I would love to shoot and learn from him. How did you get hooked up with him like that? Do you know Stephen Oachs? (http://www.stephenoachs.com/) He lives in San Jose (I live in Hayward), and does several workshops where you can go out with a group and get personal training.
Hi Steven, you've just answered your own question really.
I used to shoot all my landscapes at f22 except when for some strange reason my Sigma 10-22 would allow me to use f25 or even f32, don't ask me how lol cos it's only supposed to go up to f22, anyway, it does it sometimes.
I was lucky enough to have a masterclass on a local beach with Boyd, a professional photographer who sadly has just recently left this site.
What I learned in an hour or so with him has totally changed the way I now take my landscapes.
He advised against defaulting to the smallest aperture and said I'd be better off using f16 in most cases as most lenses give softer results at their smallest apertures and also my ND grads would blend better at f16 than they would at smaller apertures.
He also showed me how to use manual focus and metering which is much easier, especially for sunsets where auto focus is really difficult due to the low light.
I now focus by using the scale on my lens.
As you say, you need to vary your apertures at times, I use anything from f8 to f22 now, depending on how much DOF I want.
Geoff.
thanks geoffrey.
question now though. if u dont use AF, can u just use MF and eyeball it in the viewfinder? what do u mean by the scale on your lens? i plan on using all manual settings, like i normally do on any tripod shots where i have the time, but im kinda confused on how to properly focus my scene now. haha.
I would advocate AF if you can, if only because not everyone's eyes are good enough to obtain the required focus. AF along with judicious choice of focal point, if its available to you, seems a natural choice.
Quote: I now focus by using the scale on my lens.
Same here, when there's not enough light to use AF.
what does that mean though? i only know how to use AF. and for AF, what do i do? focus off the sky? or the closest point in my shot?
You need to make sure that the items in the shot that are most likely to detract from the composition if they are *not* in focus *are* in focus. For example, if I am using the camera in a low position then I need to make sure that the foreground detail is in focus first. I then choose an appropriate depth of field to ensure that the non-foreground parts of the image that need to be in focus are also in focus. eg, f20 on my 17-40 for something set quite far back in the composition.
THANKS! so if i was using f/16, focus really isnt much of an issue then, especially if i was using f/22, since it has a super deep DOF?
Yes, if you're only conerned that *everything* in the image should be in focus. There's a couple of other points that you might consider; a larger aperture (ie. lower number) allows you to use your focus creatively, creating emphasis on in-focus objects by selectively blurring things in front of and behind the plane of focus. Also, all lenses have a focus performance envelope which determines how deep the field of focus is for a given aperture, how the lens vignettes at smaller apertures and which aperture really does deliver the sharpest field, which is what you were alluding to earlier. It's worth knowing how your preferred choice of lens performs in all these areas as it can really improve your work when you're compositions are getting close to the edges of the lens's optimum performance.
As a quick and rough guide:
Decide what aperture & shutter speed needed for the exposure.
Put the lens into manual focus, then turn the focusing to infinity on the scale of the lens.
Work out the hyperfocal distance. Place your subject of the foreground at that distance and shoot away.
Large f numbers is the gay way 
Try this:
You need a sturdy tripod obviously!
Take several photo's all at the same f/number, let's say f/11 or f/4 if you want to be really clever.
Focus on the foreground for the first shot then a subject a bit further in the frame and so on to the background, i.e. the distant hills.
Prep one of them in Lightroom or your preferred RAW convertor then sync them so they all have the same white balance etc.
Export them out as PSD's etc.
Now open Photoshop and click FILE > SCRIPTS > LOAD FILES INTO STACK
Select the files you just exported all at different focus points and tick the 'Attempt to automatically Align Source Images' check box then hit OK
Now in the Layer Palette select all the layers and then click EDIT > AUTO BLEND LAYERS
Select Stack Images and make sure the Seamless Tones and colours is ticked, now click OK.
Behold as PS brings out the best focus from each layer, automatically masks them and makes one incredibly sharp all the way through image.
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