Hyperfocusing in landscape

[Giorgio]

I realise the landscape shots are rather soft.As thought they are not in focus.
Depth of field is set to F16-F22.A mode
What could be the problem here?
Though set at Small aperture,a small spot on the beach is in focus whereas the yatch and distance forest behind seem soft.
What could be the problem?Wrong focus?Or lense diffraction?

 

[night86mare]

do you have pictures to show?

if you are focusing on the small spot, then the depth of field will be limited. for maximum dof, you will either need hyperfocusing tables, or a very rudimentary guide is to focus one third of the way into the scene by eye.

 

[boyboy]

i know i've posted this link before (if there are better links around do share :thumbsup

but f16-22, could it be diffraction making ur pix soft?

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/diffraction.htm

 

[Giorgio]

do you have pictures to show?

if you are focusing on the small spot, then the depth of field will be limited. for maximum dof, you will either need hyperfocusing tables, or a very rudimentary guide is to focus one third of the way into the scene by eye.

I'll convert it to Jpeg and have it sent to you.
Okay,not small spot but a spot in the FOREground.Even then,Why would the background be soft or blur?At F16,everything would be infocus right?no?

 

[Giorgio]

i know i've posted this link before (if there are better links around do share :thumbsup

but f16-22, could it be diffraction making ur pix soft?

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/diffraction.htm

Yep,I heard of lense diffraction and thus was wondering if the smaller Aperture is the culprit for my soft image.
Did you see those table and maths?Boy!
Btw i don't get this

..."Example: let's suppose our lens has to move 2 mm to focus from the nearest to the farthest points. Therefore the depth of the image is 2 mm. In this case the sharpest aperture is the square root of (375 x 2), or the square root of 750, or f/27. "
Morever,how do you know how much the lens has moved in terms of mm value?

 

[boyboy]

i only really absorbed the part which he says to use nothing smaller than f8, or is it f11? ;p

if u need to cut light further, use faster shutter speed. or use polarising/neutral density filters

 

[cabbySHE]

f/16 ~ f/22 are the aperture I'd used 80% ~90% for my works, out of focus only occur when using a longer focal lens.
But for landscape, isn't infinity ?

 

[LifeInMacro]

What's your setup? Lens perhaps? Some lens tend to give soft edges on certain apertures or zooming range. Read some reviews about your lens on the net and see what experts say.

 

[ExplorerZ]

yeap, depends alot on the lens used as well, i find diffraction pretty obvious on my Tokina 12-24 when i hit anything higher than f11.
focusing infinity should do the job most of the time for wide angle unless you have included a subject that is quite near you.

 

[LifeInMacro]

What's your setup? Lens perhaps? Some lens tend to give soft edges on certain apertures or zooming range. Read some reviews about your lens on the net and see what experts say.

...and to add...each lens has a sweet spot, and over time with trial and error, you'd find out what is the best aperture to give you the best results.

 

[boyboy]

f/16 ~ f/22 are the aperture I'd used 80% ~90% for my works, out of focus only occur when using a longer focal lens.
But for landscape, isn't infinity ?

diffraction is not the same as out of focus.

infinity for landscapes, true. but the infinity mark on ur lens may not be the actual "infinity" ;p

 

[catchlights]

let say you use the hyper focusing, the DOF of f16 on your lens is able to cover from 15' to infinity, if you focus on a object at 25' away.

but if you set your focus on the subject you want to highlight is at 15', of course the DOF will change, the hyper focusing range will bring closer to the camera, so the objects at far end will be out of focus.


btw, many people set focusing point at infinity for maximum DOF is not entirely correct, but will still work, provided there is no foreground object.