Landscape Photography - Tiny Apertures

[gsgary]

They could be using medium format or large format where F stops can go smaller

 

[KmH]

Once the DoF reaches 'infinity' behind the point of focus, using a smaller aperture becomes moot because there is nothing to gain, but plenty to lose through diffraction effects.

 

[Dao]

When we define DoF, we need to understand a term called Circle of Confusion (CoC) since it tells which area appear to be sharp and which area appera to be blur. And CoC is defined as the largest blur spot that still appear as a spot by human eye.

Remember that in this case, 'CoC' is short for 'maximum acceptable circle of confusion', not simply 'circle of confusion'. The size of the circle of confusion is not defined.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought the CoC was defined for certain medium such as 30 microns for the 35mm (diameter of the circle) (with 8x10 finial output and 25cm viewing distance)

Also, if the photographer use film instead of digital sensor, diffraction issue is not as bad when stop down to f/22 or smaller.

What makes you say that?

I read it in different places in the past that mentioned about diffraction are worst in digital medium then in film. Please correct me if I am wrong. Let me go google and see if I found those articles I read. Then again, the material I read may not be correct.

 

[zcar21]

Landscape photographers usually use larger formats which have shallower dof, so they have to use f22 or even smaller. when using an apc sensor diffraction start to lower the quality of the picture at around f11, so using a smaller aperture will still give you more dof, but the overall quality of the picture will suffer.

 

[Vinata]

camera lenses

 

[greybeard]

Back when lenses had aperture rings and DoF markings, using a tripod I would select the lens's smallest aperture (usually 16 or 22), place the infinity mark on that aperture # and shoot. I knew that at that setting I was going to get the deepest DoF I could get. I just didn't worry about diffraction, maybe I should have LOL.