Nikon D7200 Landscape Shoot

morph1 · Sep 27, 2016

Hi there, this is my first post here and I have to admit I am not a pro or anything close to it and my understanding of the DSLR cameras is average, I recently upgraded from D5000 to this wonderful D7200 which I have been enjoying every since I opened the box lol.
I recently photographed some landscape in the mountains with overcast clouds ect,
the shots looked great however in close up they turned out a bit blurry.
I was shooting manually at F5 Shutter Speed 1/8000 sec with ISO of 500 I hand held the camera
and the images turned out ok but the sharpness was kind of disappointing...
I was wondering perhaps my metering is set wrong or something...
I have noticed on the left bottom side front there is a button and I can select AF AC and modify the
amount of sensors in the focus that take count , I also noticed the top right button for metering and I sort of understand how that works but is there a way I can improve or correct my setting to do something more to help in taking a sharp landscape images...
Inside the house the images look great, I am using the standard lens 18-140 Nikon lens...
Should I use a tripod in my landscape shoot ? how should I set up my autofocus solution I have noticed there is 9, 21, upto 70 + and 3D solution..

Any help would be appreciated.

thank you !

Dropbox - Edmonton.jpg

photo1x1.com · Sep 27, 2016

Hi,
sharpness has a lot to do with aperture. Usually a lens is sharpest at around f11. For a handheld landscape image with a wideangle setting, 1/100th should be sufficient, no tripod really needed for getting sharp images under these circumstances.
Plus: ISO 500 under these lighting conditions doesn't make a lot of sense. The lower the ISO, the better the image quality. So stick with 100 in bright daylight.
For focus use AF-S (single autofocus, rather than continuous) for landscape. Which focus point, you use should't matter too much, as long as the camera finds something to focus on (everything but the sky

), because with a wideangle, everything that is further away than 2-3m is infinity focus and will need the same focus than the furthest away object.
So as a conclusion, I'd first try a smaller aperture (bigger number). If that doesn't work, I'd check whether the camera/lens combination has a front/backfocus issue.

morph1 · Sep 27, 2016

Thank you for your reply,

I will head out this afternoon for some fun testing, I am just reading that F8 - F11 is the sweet spot for aperture , its an overcast today what ISO do you suggest I use ?
I am gonna take a tripod as well and see if that makes any difference...

photo1x1.com · Sep 27, 2016

Set f11, and ISO100 and see whether your shutter speed is still fast enough (1/100th sure use fast enough). If it's overcast, you'll probably need ISO 200, or slightly more).

dennybeall · Sep 27, 2016

In my opinion ISO is the last setting you want to raise. Set ISO at 100 or 200. Set the f-stop to the middle of the lenses range. Then set the speed as needed, for a landscape try 250. If too much light at 250 then raise the speed. If not enough light lower the speed to 120. Open the lens a bit if you're still not there. If you need a bit more consider ISO to as high as 400.
If you're in a "Must get the shot!!" situation then the steps are different.

photo1x1.com · Sep 27, 2016

dennybeall said:
In my opinion ISO is the last setting you want to raise. Set ISO at 100 or 200. Set the f-stop to the middle of the lenses range. Then set the speed as needed, for a landscape try 250. If too much light at 250 then raise the speed. If not enough light lower the speed to 120. Open the lens a bit if you're still not there. If you need a bit more consider ISO to as high as 400.
If you're in a "Must get the shot!!" situation then the steps are different.

True. I almost entirely shot ISO100 for years. But since the last generation of cameras, using ISO200 is a non-issue and makes things easier at times. And sometimes it increases the quality of your image when you can stop down the lens a bit by rising ISO.