Landscape Clarity

[Malok]

How can I achieve the greatest clarity in my landscape photos? Normally, one should aim to use the smallest aperture possible to get the greatest depth of field. My shots seem to be missing the sharpness that I was expecting. I heard someone once say that with the G3 that to get the sharpest photos one should use an aperture of 4 or 5. Can this possibly be true???

[Deckyon]

I have heard f5.6 gives the best. I cannot confirm it, however. I do know of a site that focuses on (pun intended) outdoor photography.

Outdoor Eyes (http://www.outdooreyes.com)

They have a great forums setup running, an awesome user-contributed, monthly newsletter and more... Also, it's free.

[regjones]

Can you post an example of lack of sharpness?

A good tripod is very useful for landscape photography. Do you use one?

[CyberDyneSystems]

It is true that with most lenses the
"sharpest" aperture setting is never the largest. In fact most lenses that go down to anything like f/2.8 or lower (larger) also get softer as they do so.

Although it varies from lens to lens.. often somewhere between f/5.6 - f/11 is the best. With f/8 being a usual suspect.

I'm sure you can find opinions somewhere on what aperture is sharpest for the G3

[sdommin]

Almost every lens is at its best when stopped down 2 or 3 stops. I use f4 on the G3 and it seems to work well.

[DaveB]

I use one of the Custom mode memories just for landscapes on my G3.

I have the manual focus set for infinity and aperature set at 4.0.

I let the camera choose the shutter speed and get consistently good results.

Yeah, a tripod is a must. Not just for stability, but in order to get the verticals correct in the LCD.

[twl845]

I haven't had my G3 too long, but my landscape photos are great. I shot my photos with Program mode and let the camera make the settings. All my shots so far have been on a sunny day. No tripod. The only thing you may want to check is shutter speed. If it's not fast enough you'll have slight camera shake making the shot slightly blurry.

[benca1]

Hey, I asked the same thing not too long ago.. well about 6 months ago, motivated by the images sdommin posts.

there's several processing tricks that are capable of adding that extra bit of detail (clarity) to your images. That and using levels to add just a bit more color saturation really helps.

I found this thread looking for advice given to me by Scott and another super helpful guy with regards to the unsharp mask filter.

I think this is the only processing that Scott does to his images. Many people use auto-levels.

I'll keep looking and will post that infor here when I find it.

Otherwise, I've closely examined Scott's (and others too) compositions, and aside from the inherent talent needed in this regard, I've come pretty close with shooting at F 4.0 and using the unsharp mask filter.

Another good processing trick is something you do in astronomy CCD work, which is taking several exact shots of different exposures and stacking them right on top of each other. You would be amazed at the great color saturation and detail this can create.

[MiG82]

Do remember that as far as diffraction is concerned (the cause of small aperture quality losses AFAIK) f/8 on the G3 is like f/39 on a 35 mm camera with the same field of view.

[alwayslooking]

deckyon wrote:
I have heard f5.6 gives the best. I cannot confirm it, however. I do know of a site that focuses on (pun intended) outdoor photography.

Outdoor Eyes (http://www.outdooreyes.com)

They have a great forums setup running, an awesome user-contributed, monthly newsletter and more... Also, it's free.


Brad, thanks for pointing us to "outdooreyes". This site will be a great tool in the toolbox!

Phil

[phili1]

All the quotes are from reports from a reviewing source and all it tells you is that one aperature gives better results the an other. the optimum on a 35 mm camera is F8 top F 11 but the others are good as well. I know you would need a loop to tell the difference from one aperature to another.

Hey its you that you have to please so put the Camera on a tripod and take three shots. Set your aperature and let the camera select the shutter speed take the same shot at F4 -5.6-8 adjust your focus for infinity and have them printed out and then tell me what you find.

If you can find a visuall difference ( not counting depth of field) I'll take you to lunch.

[Bruce]

As far as I know, both larger and smaller aperture on every camera (digital or not) suffer from some loss of clarity. For optical reasons all lenses should give their best performance at intermediate apertures, so on the G3 I think that F 5.6 should be a good choice for landscapes. A good tripod will be certainly useful too.

[JamesC]

benca1 wrote:
Hey, I asked the same thing not too long ago.. well about 6 months ago, motivated by the images sdommin posts.



I found that thread interesting too! Its reference is:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=13799#71833

I find the G3 sharpness fine for landscapes, especially with a little tweaking as described on the thread above, but I'd support the comments about using a tripod. I saw some illustrations once comparing blow-up sections of pictures taken on a film camera at 1/125 (which I'd normally assume was fine for hand holding) with and without a tripod. The difference was startling! Since then I've always tried to chase as good light as I can find, and been very careful about how I hold a camera.

Don't hold both sides of the camera; instead try cradling the lens barrel in your left hand while squeezing the shutter release with your right. Mmm... sounds almost indecent.

Looking for supports such as fence posts and convenient rocks is a good tip too.

James Carter

[jeffyr163]

Any quality piece of glass should be acceptable at any aperature. However a lens is its sharpest 2 stops closed, so if you have an f-2.8, then 5.6 will give you the sharpest image. That is not to say that wide open is soft...if it is then you may have a mechanical problem. As for camera shake contributing to the softness, you should be able to handhold down to at least 1/30, but most likely slower if you brace yourself and use a moderate to wide focal length.

You may be seeing the haze in the atmosphere in your landscape photos, which can make the image appear soft. If you purchase one of the 52 or 58mm adapters and put a UV filter on you should see things clear up a bit.


Jeffyr