When I\u2019m asked how I get such intense landscape photographs I respond that it all begins with the fundamentals, the photo foundation.\u00a0 Given that you have the other elements of a great photograph \u2013 a terrific subject and fantastic light \u2013 you are still not guaranteed a compelling image if it doesn\u2019t have a solid foundation.<\/p>\n
What is the photo foundation?\u00a0 It\u2019s two things \u2013 a proper exposure and the correct focus.\u00a0 These are so basic we never talk about them much but, if you\u2019re like me, you\u2019ve had to walk away from a potentially great image because one or both of these were not carefully attended to in the field.<\/p>\n
This post discusses focus.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sharp images are the goal of most landscape photographers.\u00a0 We have two options when it comes to focusing \u2013 autofocus and manual focus.<\/p>\n
Cameras use multiple built in focus points to focus the lens.\u00a0 When you depress the shutter half way, the processor in the camera determines which of these focus points to use and which to ignore.\u00a0 It then focuses the lens.\u00a0 The processors are extremely sophisticated and generally do a very good job.<\/p>\n
But not all the time.\u00a0 Sometimes they choose the wrong focus points.\u00a0 Fortunately, most digital cameras allow you to tell the camera what focus point to use.<\/p>\n
One thing to take into consideration when using auto focus is the fact that the focus may be off ever so slightly.\u00a0 This can be corrected by sending your camera and lenses to your manufacturer\u2019s service center and having them calibrate your body to your lenses.<\/p>\n
With early film cameras manual focus was the only way to go.\u00a0 Various devices were used to help the photographer get a sharp focus including prisms and split images.<\/p>\n
But without these devices it\u2019s difficult to manually focus while looking through the view finder of a digital camera.\u00a0 But with the development of Live View (the ability to see your image before you capture it) on digital SLRs, manual focus is now the most precise way to focus.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n
Display the image on you LCD screen using live view.\u00a0 Select the object you want to focus on and zoom in on it.\u00a0 Focus the lens (make sure it is set to manual focus) and zoom back out.\u00a0 Take your picture.\u00a0 It\u2019s as easy as that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Above we\u2019re referred several times to selecting the object you want to focus on.\u00a0 But how do you do that?<\/p>\n
The goal is to have the nearest and farthest objects both in focus.\u00a0 This requires two things \u2013 depth of field and focusing at the hyper focal distance.\u00a0 What\u2019s that?\u00a0 Well, simply put, at any given depth of field it is the distance that will have objects at infinity just in focus.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want to focus on the objects at infinity because that will place your foreground objects out of focus.\u00a0 And you don\u2019t want to focus on your foreground objects because infinity will be out of focus.\u00a0 You want to focus somewhere in between.\u00a0 But where?<\/p>\n
Generally speaking, given that your depth of field is adequate to cover both foreground and background, you want to focus 1\/3 the distance between your closest foreground object and infinity.\u00a0 That\u2019s because the depth of field is much shallower in front of the focal distance than it is behind.<\/p>\n
You can actually print charts off the internet or by little circular slide rules that give you the depth of field and the hyper focal distance for any aperture \u2013 focal length combination.\u00a0 I know photographers that carry a tape measure in their camera bags to precisely determine the hyper focal distance.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s an easier way.\u00a0 On your live view screen or through your view finder, select an object that is 1\/3 of the way up from the bottom of the frame and focus on it.\u00a0 Then shoot at f\/22 and you got it.\u00a0 However, if you are concerned about the effects of diffraction then maybe the circular slide rule calculator would be a good idea, if nothing more than to give you extra piece of mind.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The opposite of a large depth of field is selective focus.\u00a0 The goal is to have a very limited part of the image in focus and the rest out of focus.\u00a0 To do this you minimize the depth of field by shooting with a wide open lens; that is, maximum aperture.\u00a0 Longer focal length lenses have a shorter depth of field so one technique you might try is moving away from the subject and shooting wide open with a longer focal length lens.<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re using selective focus it\u2019s critical that you get a very sharp focus on your subject.\u00a0 In a flower that may be the pistils and stamens.\u00a0 I wildlife, it\u2019s the eyes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth mentioning hand held photography.\u00a0 Most of the time landscape photographers will use a tripod to get the greatest sharpness in their images.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a freedom and spontaneity that comes with hand held photography.\u00a0 And it\u2019s still possible to get sharp images although not as sharp as you can get from your tripod.<\/p>\n
The trick is to match the shutter speed with your focal length.\u00a0 The formula is very simple.\u00a0 The shutter speed should be 1 divided by the\u00a0 focal length or faster.\u00a0 For example, if your focal length is 50mm then you can get a sharp image if your shutter\u00a0 speed is at least 1\/50.\u00a0 If your focal length is 200mm then you need to use a shutter speed of 1\/200 or shorter.<\/p>\n
You also want to do everything else to steady your camera like tucking your left elbow into your chest to give the camera a solid platform with your body.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In summary, to get the sharpness you desire, first determine what object you want to focus on.\u00a0 Determine the aperture and focal length settings that will give you the depth of field you want whether it\u2019s hyper focal distance or selective focus.\u00a0 Then focus.\u00a0 If you\u2019re using autofocus, select the focus point that is on the object you decided to focus on.\u00a0 If you\u2019re using manual focus, use live view to zoom in on the focus object.<\/p>\n
Well focused, sharp images will provide your photographs with a strong photo foundation.<\/p>\n
(1018)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I\u2019m asked how I get such intense landscape photographs I respond that it all begins with the fundamentals, the photo foundation.\u00a0 Given that you have the other elements of a great photograph \u2013 a terrific subject and fantastic light \u2013 you are still not guaranteed a compelling image if it doesn\u2019t have a solid … Continue reading “Photo Foundations – Focus”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[275,13,10,274,93],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-how-to-articles","tag-focus","tag-photography","tag-ralph-nordstrom","tag-tutorial","tag-workshop"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-gp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1021,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}