sharper photos with my Canon 600D/T3i, landscape pictures and advices for new lens

Hi!

I have bought a Canon 600d with a 18-55mm lens a few months, and I'm very satisfied with it. I'm still learning how to get great pictures with my Canon.

I was on trip to the Azores Islands and i took plenty of pictures, mostly from the landscape (almost 1000)...they seemed very nice in the camera, but when I saw them on the computer, the foreground was very nice but the background wasn't sharp and the colours were faded. I used my 18mm-55m lens, and a small aperture (f16)...I took the pictures first in landscape mode and then in the P mode.

Any hints how to make great lanscape pictures with my canon 600d and my lens (I have also a Conon 70mm-300mm lens, the autofocus isn't working - old lens - but with manual focus it works fine)? How to get everything sharp and with nice colours (foreground and background)?

I can use any kind of tips and hints. Thanks.

Another question is, what cheap and good lens would you recommend me to add to the ones I've already got? to use all around (landscape, portraits, some macros, etc.). We are in crisis in Portugal, and the money lacks a bit, so it must to be a cheap lens (don't need to be a new one...second hand lenses are ok for me).

Thank you all.

Greetings from Portugal.

Humberto Sintra

 

Lens Sharpness

F/16 will always cause blurr by diffration on digital cameras. Lenses are typically at their sharpest around F/4 and F/8, for prime lenses even sooner.

 

Could you post some examples?

 

Ok, I believe that in F/8 I get sharper pictures...but what about the background? In a landscape picture I want to get a sharp foreground and background..isn't the aperture F/8 (or F/4) to great? I've always heard to use smaller apertures.

I'm at work right now and my pictures are at home...will try to put them here later.

I'm just a beginner in matters of DSLR...every single advice is welcome

 

Depth of acceptable focus (DoF) depends on #1) format (the size of the sensor), #2) focal length, #3) aperture, and #4) the subject to camera distance. For any given aperture there is a hyperfocal distance that will give you the maximum DoF for each given f/stop. For instance, if you are shooting at 18mm and f/11 you can focus at a distance of 5.15 feet, everything from 2.57 feet to INFINITY will be in acceptable focus. As mentioned earlier, f/16 and higher will diffract the light rays so as a rule I don't use any f/stops smaller than f/11 but, I never really need to.

Here is a link to a DoF table, hope it helps.
Depth of Field Table

 

Tests for (many, but not all) Canon EOS lenses:

Canon EOS (APS-C) Lens Tests / Reviews

 

Few tips.

- Learn about Depth of Field especially Hyperfocal distance.
- Learn more about Post processing.
- Learn more about filters, especially circular polarizer filter.
- Learn about shooting time. The golden hour.

 

Never ask for help with a picture if you dont post pictures. They may be fine and you just dont think they look good or maybe not. But we will never know if you dont post a picture.

 

Here is one example of a picture I took (in my hometown Nazaré).

It was taken with my Canon 600D/T3i, 18mm, F/22, ISO 100...it was a sunny day in Winter.

Please some advices.

Thanks.

 

You do not need another lens for landscapes untill you master the one you have, if you are thinking of buying an Ultra Wide Angle lens it will make your life much more difficult to get great landscapes. The 18-55 is a great starter lens and an easy focal range to work within and begin to master.

 

I've taken a few more pictures, and they're not as bad as the one I posted here...but the background isn't sharp and the colours seemed like washed away, faded...what am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your advices.

Greetings from Portugal.

 

From what I can tell, being sure to shoot on a tripod with an aperture like f22 is your best bet for image sharpness. It kind of depends on what your shooting as well, but with landscapes it doesn't matter quite as much.

Do you use a lens hood? That may as help with keeping your image vibrant.