How to focus for landscape shots ??

[Raj]

Most of the times I shoot landscape I tend to focus infinity/close to infinity, however this dosent seem to give me good results. Lanscape shots from other members here seem to be very sharp. I am just wondering how do you guys focus landscape shots.
Whats the best way to make sure whole scene will be in sharp focus ?
I have tried to stop down the lens & tried with different lenses without much improvement, so obviously something is wrong with my technique.

Appriciate your advise on this.

Cheers
- Raj

[hedphonz]

there is something called the sunny 16 rule, were if it is sunny, make sure the f stop is 16, and your shutter speed is the same as your ISO value.

[tim]

hedphonz, you answer doesn't appear to have anything to do with the question!

When you're talking about depth of field, you get 1/3 of the focused part of the image in front of the focus point, and 2/3 behind. There's a name for it, I forget what it is right now. If you focus at infinity you're missing some sharpness. Personally i'd focus about half way into the middle of the scene you're trying to capture, but just try different focus points until you find an effect that works for you.

So just like most other things in photography, the real answer is "try it for yourself and do what you like best".

[Raj]

Tim, seems you are talking about hyperfocal distance.

[tim]

That's the one, I knew it had a name ;)

Seriously, try out a few different focus points and see what you like - simple as that.

[weemannie]

Hi Raj


Try www.dofmaster.com (http://www.dofmaster.com)

[cmM]

well it really depends on your scene. Do you have objects in the foreground? If so, you want to mazimize your DOF by focusing at hyperfocal distance. This hyperfocal distance however, depends on the focal length you're shooting at and a lot of times if you sit down and calculate you realize you've gain maybe 2ft :)
Focusing at infinity has worked ok for me.

[robertwgross]

Without knowing what kind of equipment you are using, all advice here is very general.

---Bob Gross---

[Raj]

Thanks guys. Again I should have been more specific.
I dont shoot with human or other subjects in forground, just lanscape. Generlly these are in parks, mountains, so a lot of trees in background. Autofocus easily locks the focus at any points (but I always set it to centre). However reviewing later almost always shows softness.... I have been shooting at f8-f11.


Last I tried this was with 20D & 50mm f1.8....
Let me know if this explains my situation. I just need some tips.

[JamieH]

This is something i was wondering about also, don't take many landscape shots though. Apparently setting the lens to its hyperfocal distance gives maximum DOF. Lenses on older film bodies allowed this to be set via the markings on lthe barrel. With the newer EOS bodies tese markings do not exist so they included the DEP camera mode instead. Try this technique
hope it helps!
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dep.shtml (http://http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dep.shtml)

[JamieH]

Apologies that link doesn't work for some reason try this one!
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/dep.shtml

[Tom W]

Thanks guys. Again I should have been more specific.
I dont shoot with human or other subjects in forground, just lanscape. Generlly these are in parks, mountains, so a lot of trees in background. Autofocus easily locks the focus at any points (but I always set it to centre). However reviewing later almost always shows softness.... I have been shooting at f8-f11.


Last I tried this was with 20D & 50mm f1.8....
Let me know if this explains my situation. I just need some tips.

The 50/1.8 is a very good lens, but it doesn't have a focus scale (unless you're using the older Mark I version), so its hard to set the hyperfocus distance. I'd probably use autofocus, but select a focus point that is over a subject that is 1/2 to 2/3 of the way back towards your farthest subject. You don't necessarily have to use the center focus point - select one of the others if you wish. Shooting at f/8 or f/11 should give you pretty good depth of field.

You may wish to try a wider lens also. That will give you a deeper DOF range.

Also, make sure that you're getting good shutter speed, or using a tripod.

[rdenney]

Thanks guys. Again I should have been more specific.
I dont shoot with human or other subjects in forground, just lanscape. Generlly these are in parks, mountains, so a lot of trees in background. Autofocus easily locks the focus at any points (but I always set it to centre). However reviewing later almost always shows softness.... I have been shooting at f8-f11.


If you are shooting your 50/1.8 at f/8, and focusing on infinity to take distant landscapes, then your problem is not focus, unless the lens is faulty.

At what resolution are you viewing the images? At 100% resolution, there will be a softness caused by the anti-aliasing filter on the sensor. You need to apply a bit of sharpening, either using Unsharp Masking or one of the third-party sharpeners (I use Fred Miranda's CSPRO) to correct that effect. The images most post here are scaled down for web display, however, and will always appear much sharper than full-resolution images viewed at 100%.

Why don't you crop a bit out of one of your images and post it here at 100% resolution? Also post the whole image scaled down to an acceptable number of pixels (say, 400x600). You would get more, um, focused advice.

Rick "who thinks the 50/1.8 is one of the sharpest lenses in the lineup" Denney

[Raj]

rdenny,

My images look good too when scaled down, however I start seeing softness while cropping. I always apply some USM to pics on PSCS, however I could still see the softness towards 100% crop.

Based on suggestions from all of you I will go & do some shooting this weekend using tripod & remote release. I will make sure to post the results then, both scaled down & 100% crop.

Cheers
- Raj

[robertwgross]

There's all sorts of things that can go wrong and give you a less-than-perfect result. Camera shake, diffraction with an f-number too high, and odd lenses will give you fits. Make sure you know which mode your camera is in and where the focus point is.

For wide landscape shots, I generally focus on the contrasty horizon line, especially if that has a tree and some sky.

---Bob Gross---