Aperture and Landscape Photography

[LCARSx32]

When doing a landscape, is it best to stop the aperture all the way down? Or is it better to find the lenses "sweet spot"? I've heard most lenses are sharpest a few steps down. Do they get softer on the other side? I haven't played much with the really narrow f/stops like f/22.

I'm going to be doing some more landscapes at Valley View Glades and last time shot wide open. I was disappointed because my foregrounds were (not surprisingly) out of focus. So I wanted to get your thoughts on aperture settings.

 

[LarryD]

Any time that you want quality photos, you should be in the "sweet spot" of your lenses..

For landscapes you should be at the higher (numerically) aperture end of your lenses best performance range if it fits your Depth of Field requirements..

 

[Jarmo]

With the smallest possible aperture you are starting to get light diffraction off the aperture blades which decreases the quality. So yeah, find the sweet spot.

 

[LCARSx32]

Thanks guys. I'll do some test shots tomorrow to find out where my lenses' sweet spots are.

 

[sam_justice]

Thanks guys. I'll do some test shots tomorrow to find out where my lenses' sweet spots are.

If Ken Rockwell has reviewed any of your lenses then check his website, he does a "sweet spot" test, saves the hassle

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

Depends on the effect you are going for. Depends how expansive the scene is that you are taking. While you lose overall sharpness outside of the "sweet spot" you may distrubute that sharpness more evenly over a seemingly endless DOF. So your close up may be slightly less sharp, but you will have much more depth. What if you were shooting a long field of crops that you really wanted to seem endless and emphasize the texture/detail of the millions of crop tops. The far background had some trees, and then beyond that a big deep mountain range that goes as far as the eye/camera can see. It might serve you better to give up that sweetspot, to ensure that you had a really expansive super deep DOF.

One addition to this, stopped all the way down is how you get the sunburst/sunray pictures and also get the same effect from lights on night shots ( like a cityscape ). Look at a light close by and squint your eyes so you can barely see it. What happens? You see a bunch of streaks/rays coming off of the light. Practically the same effect.

 

[Robin Usagani]

How to Select the Sharpest Aperture

 

[Overread]

Also read up about Hyperfocal focusing as well (I'd leave a link but I've no good reference so google will give you as good as I would find). Its somewhat more tricky these days as the scales that used to be marked on all lenses are no longer marked (makers have moved far more toward AF as the mainstay) but its still possible. This gives you the abilty to get the deep depth of field without having to use progressivly smaller and smaller apertures.

Also remember many of the landscape experts in the past often used medium or large formate camera bodies - so apertures like f22 and f45 were not as heavily diffraction limited as they are on far smaller fullframe (35mm) and 1.6 crop camera bodies. (where its roughly f13 for the crop and f16 for hte fullframe

 

[Gaerek]

With landscape photography, proper DoF is more important than using the sweetspot to maximize sharpness. This is especially true if you have fairly close foreground elements. If I were you'd I'd read up on hyperfocal distance. Having an idea of what this is, how to set it, etc will give you a better idea of which aperture to use for a particular scene.

For example, if you have a foreground element 5 feet from you, you want to make sure the foreground and background are acceptably in focus, and your sweet spot is f/8, if you set it at f/8 either the background or foreground will be out of focus. In this situation, you may need to go up to f/22 even to get what you need.

For me, I'm typically between f/11 and f/16. I may go up or down slightly depending on the scene, but 90% of my landscapes are in that range.

 

[Buckster]

With landscape photography, proper DoF is more important than using the sweetspot to maximize sharpness. This is especially true if you have fairly close foreground elements.

That's it in a nutshell. Nonetheless, the sweet spot of a lens can usually be used to achieve the effect desired for DOF purposes on landscapes because you either want the foreground shapr with the background OOF or vice versa, or you want it all in focus. The first two can usually be facilitated with the sweet spot. The all-in-focus shot is also done with the sweet spot, but using....

If I were you'd I'd read up on hyperfocal distance. Having an idea of what this is, how to set it, etc will give you a better idea of which aperture to use for a particular scene.

Exactly. With hyperfocus you can still use the sweet spot, but effectively extend the DOF from right in front of you out to infinity.

For example, if you have a foreground element 5 feet from you, you want to make sure the foreground and background are acceptably in focus, and your sweet spot is f/8, if you set it at f/8 either the background or foreground will be out of focus.

Unless you use hyperfocussing.

In this situation, you may need to go up to f/22 even to get what you need.

Unless you use hyperfocussing.

 

[Gaerek]

Unless you use hyperfocussing.

Yeah, my brain isn't working this early yet. 18mm, at f/8, on my camera (according to my handy dandy hyperfocal calculator) puts the hyperfocal distance at 7 feet. Enough to get practically everything in the frame "in focus."

The thing to remember, however, is that "in focus" is a relative term. If you plan to make a large print, certain areas that should be in focus, will look slightly out of focus. I was aware of what Buckster was saying, just wasn't thinking. But even in that situation, I wouldn't use f/8/ Jumping up to f/11 won't significantly increase diffraction, and will help to ensure that everything is in focus.

In the end, Buckster is correct. Hyperfocal distance is the landscape shooter's best friend.

 

[DirtyDFeckers]

How to Select the Sharpest Aperture

I found this link quite helpful, thanks.

 

[KmH]

Here is a good tutorial on Hyperfocus - Understanding Your Camera Lens's Hyperfocal Distance

and an online DOF calculator that also shows Hyperfocus specifications:
Online Depth of Field Calculator

and their Hyperfocal chart - Hyperfocal Distance Chart - DOFMaster