Can someone please explain in a step by step manner where and how to focus landscape pictures with the D800E?
Live view /Manual focus??
Focus 1/3 rd into the frame/ hyperfocal??
I am otherwise using a steady tripod, exposure delay, mirror lockup. Also staying at apertures below 11.
I am having issues with the bottom of the picture being out of focus and unsharp. Tried reading numerous tutorials.
I chose an autofocus point on the top of the black tombstone.
I find the foreground oof. Here is an image shot at f/11, tripod mounted. This was with a 14-24 Nikon lens.
I chose an autofocus point on the top of the black tombstone.
I find the foreground oof. Here is an image shot at f/11, tripod mounted. This was with a 14-24 Nikon lens.
I am otherwise using a steady tripod, exposure delay, mirror lockup.
Here's a hypothetical example. Suppose I am photographing a meadow that has some flowers on the ground about 10 feet away, a treeline 100 feet away, and mountains in the distance. If I focus on the mountains the flowers may be out of focus. But, if I focus on the trees, everything will be in focus.Your example is a good illustration of why the hyperfocal concept can be useful. The focus distance between 10 feet and 100 feet is very much larger than the focus distance between 100 feet and infinity. If you focus on the trees, the flowers will still be way out of focus. If you want the flowers and trees to be equally well in focus (or more probably equally blurred by defocus), you need to focus around 20 feet.
Can someone please explain in a step by step manner where and how to focus landscape pictures with the D800E?
Live view /Manual focus??
Focus 1/3 rd into the frame/ hyperfocal??
I am otherwise using a steady tripod, exposure delay, mirror lockup. Also staying at apertures below 11.
I am having issues with the bottom of the picture being out of focus and unsharp. Tried reading numerous tutorials.
Simple straightforward advise is much appreciated.
Thanks!
Don't worry about diffraction.
I chose an autofocus point on the top of the black tombstone.
I find the foreground oof. Here is an image shot at f/11, tripod mounted. This was with a 14-24 Nikon lens.
FF cameras offer less DoF compared to smaller formats, all other things being equal.
My point Bernard about stopping down one stop for good measure and not worrying about diffraction is that if your DOF aperture setting or focus point is off a little, it's worse to have parts out of focus with no diffraction rather than having everything you want in focus but with some diffraction.
Which do you think is worse and under what conditions? Are there differences between medium format film that I shoot and D800 digital?
Well with film, I can use the aperture stop down view. But I find that it usually gets so dark you can't really tell much anyway.
That's nice processing there Hans. OT, but may I ask what is your typical workflow?
It is always a good idea to use a DOF calculator to get familiar with the actual DOF given the lens, focal length and aperture and also how much you want the picture to be enlarged. The default CoC is not always adequate.
So when you have calculated the DOF and the hyperfocal distance and made sure that you use an aperture that will give you the needed DOF then it is simple: You focus at the hyperfocal distance and take the shot.
A couple of comments on this:
1) Focus at hyperfocal distance means that you will have infinity included in the DOF for the given CoC, Aperture and focal length. But, if you focus just a bit shorter then you will no longer have infinity included. Try and do some calculations with a DOF calculator and you will.
2) Having a D800E it is really simple to check if you will get the DOF needed. Simply shoot in live view (which btw. is a good idea anyway to avoid mirror slap) and on the D800E live view shows you the picture with the stopped down aperture. So you simply first move the the focus square to where you think the hyperfocal distance is and zoom in and hold the AF-ON button until the square becomes green. The zoomed in you move the square to the foreground and see if it is within DOF and then to the background and see if it is within DOF. If not stop down. Don't go any further than f/16 unless you really have to since f/22 will loose a lot resolution and f/16 too. For f/16 I use the sharpening parameters in Lightroom fo the D800E amount=50, radius=1, detail=100 and masking=30 (for all other fstops below f/16 (f/11, f/8 etc)) I use the same except radius=0.8 and detail=70. You can iterate the focus checking to make sure you have all needed within DOF and not stopping down too much. And shoot in live view! With a focal length <100mm I have found that even continuous shooting in live view does not create any blur on a sturdy tripod with a strong ball head and an L-bracket.
3) Make sure you do not focus with the shutter button and setting this is done in a4 which you set to AF-ON only.
If you need to go beyond what is possible by stopping down then use focus stacking or tilt/shift lenses.
Some examples:
Canon 5D III and Canon 24-70 f/2.8L II at 28mm, f/16, 1/20s, ISO 100
http://www.hanskrusephotography.com/Workshops/Abruzzo-Umbria-June-2015/n-c5QGR/i-DfVVZ7m/A
(http://www.hanskrusephotography.com/photos/i-DfVVZ7m/0/L/i-DfVVZ7m-L.jpg)
Nikon D800E and Sigma 24-150 f/4 OS at 24mm, f/16, 1/320s, ISO 100
http://www.hanskrusephotography.com/Workshops/Abruzzo-Umbria-June-2015/n-c5QGR/i-X4F4ZSg/A
(http://www.hanskrusephotography.com/photos/i-X4F4ZSg/0/L/i-X4F4ZSg-L.jpg)
Nikon D800E and Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 at 14mm, f/16, 1/8s, ISO 100
http://www.hanskrusephotography.com/Workshops/Abruzzo-Umbria-June-2015/n-c5QGR/i-c9tXqcV/A
(http://www.hanskrusephotography.com/photos/i-c9tXqcV/0/L/i-c9tXqcV-L.jpg)
My point Bernard about stopping down one stop for good measure and not worrying about diffraction is that if your DOF aperture setting or focus point is off a little, it's worse to have parts out of focus with no diffraction rather than having everything you want in focus but with some diffraction.
Which do you think is worse and under what conditions? Are there differences between medium format film that I shoot and D800 digital?
Very nice picture Bernard. Sharp throughout. I would think that DR and range of stops for the right exposure may have been a problem as well. Was it?
Is that mainly due to the D800?
My point Bernard about stopping down one stop for good measure and not worrying about diffraction is that if your DOF aperture setting or focus point is off a little, it's worse to have parts out of focus with no diffraction rather than having everything you want in focus but with some diffraction.
Which do you think is worse and under what conditions? Are there differences between medium format film that I shoot and D800 digital?
I still wonder why going for stitching if you have a 36MP D810, which will be enough for most prints.
Even if you do very large prints, the distance of the viewer will make it possible to print with lesser resolution and still get the same impact.
And what about the light? How do you manage to get a 6 Shoot pano done if the light changes rapidly? Especially when you have to refocus for the upper row, too.
Hi Alan,
This article I have written long ago may give some insight: http://echophoto.dnsalias.net/ekr/index.php/photoarticles/49-dof-in-digital-pictures?start=1
Best regards
Erik
when you go in the mountains, the only lens you take with you is the Otus? That is of course a light walking package. But what, if you need longer lenses?
Hi Bernard,
thank you, very interesting. What Tripod head do you use? Do you manually expose new for the sky, or do you use the same exposure as for the landscape.
Bernard,
You are an excellent photographer and very demanding regarding image quality. When you are doing these 8 shot panos, how are you minimizing ghosting, particularly with moving clouds, moving vegetation, etc. I doubt you would tolerate this stuff, so wondering how you deal with it. Thanks.
Bart, my apologies. I don't know where I got Bernard from!
You are an excellent photographer and very demanding regarding image quality. When you are doing these 8 shot panos, how are you minimizing ghosting, particularly with moving clouds, moving vegetation, etc. I doubt you would tolerate this stuff, so wondering how you deal with it. Thanks.
Bart is indeed an excellent photographer! ;)
Thanks (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/Smileys/default/tongue.gif). I don't have a D800 so these pictures may be a bit OT, but for those who may think I'm only interested in technique, anyway LuLa is about photography: