Grayback creek - C&C

I finally got around to processing some photos from this summer. Here is a photo taken late evening in a creek in southern Oregon. I don' have a couple specific questions, but I'm interested in hearing comments first (on composition, technique and processing) so I don't skew the comments. Shot at 18mm (crop sensor), ISO 100, f/16, 5 sec. Thanks!

The focus looks soft...

Agree soft focus
Compostion looks good, would try to clone out that branch on towards top left going horizontal

I would suggest cropping a bit off the bottom (leaving the foreground rocks) and the top just below the horizontal branch. I really like this shot and don't think it's too soft (the great foreground rocks seem fine to me).

I'd suggest cropping all the trees and green out and just focus on the rocks and stream. And as mentioned above clone out the twig and dark thing on the foreground rock.

Thanks all - it is soft in the background (I think the foreground rocks are OK). I looked and really all of my shots from this shoot are soft in the background. I guess I need to be more diligent about checking focus everywhere (I think I used AF). I have some shots with only the foreground rocks, but I felt the trees in the background give it a little more context. I'll play with the cropping suggestions, and clean up and post a follow up when I have a chance. Thanks for all the tips.

The rocks in the foreground just look weird; did you do something to them in Photoshop? Layering or something? Takes a lot away from the photo, that's all I'm even looking at when I see this shot.

I think the foreground rocks make the photo. Without them, it would just be a snap shot.

basic flair wrote in post #15094267
The rocks in the foreground just look weird; did you do something to them in Photoshop? Layering or something? Takes a lot away from the photo, that's all I'm even looking at when I see this shot.

No special processing on the foreground rocks. I chose them in particular for their warm colors which I thought contrast well with the cool trees in the background. I did try to selectively warm them further with a layer mask, but didn't think it was an improvement.

Thanks for the comment.

Even the foreground rocks looks a bit out of focus. There should be some portion of the frame that is in crisp focus; in this image I'd prefer to see it either on the top-most of the three, foreground rocks or maybe the mostly underwater one slightly higher in the frame.

Snydremark wrote in post #15094920
Even the foreground rocks looks a bit out of focus. There should be some portion of the frame that is in crisp focus; in this image I'd prefer to see it either on the top-most of the three, foreground rocks or maybe the mostly underwater one slightly higher in the frame.

I definitely should be paying more attention to focus across the whole image for this type of shot. I used AF and I need to double check the focus or just go to MF for this type of shot. It could also be camera shake as I had my tripod set up with the legs in some pretty fast moving water. Thanks for the comments.

If the legs were actually in the water, then yeah, I'd suspect shake going on there, too.

Do you use Live View when doing these shots? Turning that on, and using the 10x magnification to see your focus is a real help. You can even use AF (at least, on the 40D and 7D) when you're "zoomed" in that way to get focused at a very, specific spot.

Depending on what you're trying to show, you may not want focus through the *whole* image; but you definitely want some subject for the eye to land on, that's in focus. Here, it could be the whole stream, or it could be just the band of rocks in the foreground. I think that the shot was fine, aside from the softness from, what I think is likely the correct culprit, vibration from the water against the tripod.

If you haven't checked it out yet, you should look at DoF Master; you can play with their online tool at home, or download their iOS/Android app for "on the go". It's really quite handy to check out what your DoF is likely to be like in a given scenario.

Thanks Snydremark for the additional help. I checked out DoF Master and it looks like I can theoretically focus 2.6' to infinity if I'm optimized right to the hyperfocal disance of ~3.7'. Since I was just using AF, I'm quite sure I wasn't focused at the hyperfocal distance and I may have been too close to the front rock to get it and the background in focus. Lots to learn!

[As a tangent - since hyperfocal distance is simply a calculation and lens geometries are known, Canon ought to come up with a 'focus at hyperfocal distance' focus mode. I'm sure I'm not the first with this idea, so it is probably not feasible.]

Just do yourself a favor and don't get completely caught up in "hyperfocal distance". With these cameras/lenses, it's really just a reasonable estimation; after playing with the calculator and trying a few things out, you'll come to recognize where, in the frame, things work for you and where they don't. That HF distance stuff is just a nice, ballpark, IMO.

But yes, it did look like you were focusing on that closest rock.

Snydremark wrote in post #15096368
Just do yourself a favor and don't get completely caught up in "hyperfocal distance". With these cameras/lenses, it's really just a reasonable estimation; after playing with the calculator and trying a few things out, you'll come to recognize where, in the frame, things work for you and where they don't. That HF distance stuff is just a nice, ballpark, IMO.

But yes, it did look like you were focusing on that closest rock.

Right - It sounds like the right practice is something like focus on the 3rd rock out, then check zoom in with live view or on a shot to see if the front rock and background are in focus and go from there. Thanks!

I'm posting a new crop of the first pic just to show everyone that gave me advice (I didn't bother to do any cloning). Also posting another composition from the same shoot that I didn't like as much, and an additional fun edit of just the rocks. Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm just getting my feet wet with these shots (literally!!!) and really appreciate the comments from this forum.