Ken Rockwell thinks I do!!. I currently have a D5300 and an 18-55mm AF-P kit lens and, unsuccessfully, love taking landscapes, but find my images are soft when enlarged, Would a prime lens help with this?
Thank you
This image was taken at 35mm on the 18-55, f11, and is the best of a number I took as a test, on a tripod.
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Difficult to critique as I’m only on the phone but there’s nothing that strikes me straight away as any major issue with the lens. Try and always shoot at base ISO as this will give the least noise and also max dynamic range. With regards to your second shot you’re never going to see plenty of detail on the castle as it’s heavily shaded/silhouetted.This I took at the weekend, 30mm, f11, ISO400, focused on the main part of the castle, on a tripod. When I enlarge it on my laptop it just looks soft.
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A 35mm on a crop comes up at 50mm which is too narrow for landscapes unless you doing panoramic shots
This I took at the weekend, 30mm, f11, ISO400, focused on the main part of the castle, on a tripod. When I enlarge it on my laptop it just looks soft.
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Nonsense, I've used 300mm lenses for landscape.
A 35mm 1.8 prime on DX is fine for general use, you'll only really find it a bit tight for indoors, and not always even then.
Did you read on to another post further down ?
Looks ok here on a 17" laptop, can't say much more without seeing the full res file via Flickr maybe.
Some would argue that a 10-20mm is ‘quite’ specialised though. Shooting ultra wide angle isn’t as straight forward as you think and requires learning new perspectives to get the best out of them.I said what most beginners go for before then getting deeper to specialise! Bet we all did the same ....
Some would argue that a 10-20mm is ‘quite’ specialised though. Shooting ultra wide angle isn’t as straight forward as you think and requires learning new perspectives to get the best out of them.
The point I’m trying to make is there is no right answer as to what to shoot landscapes with. 24mm and 28mm eq are arguably your ‘standard/classic’ wide angle lenses, but you can of course use anything
Thank you @Cagey75 . So, I'm OK to save myself some money and stick with the 18-55 then?
So if I view your images at full size on Flickr (ie 6000 x 4000) then it does look a bit 'mushy' but I think a lot of this is due to the light and the subject being in shadow. If I look at the stone wall/house that looks much better. I assume it's cropped as the res is smaller, but viewing at 1:1 should give comparative results, and it looks perfectly acceptable imo. It's obviously not the sharpest lens (you would expect a kit lens to be) but it's certainly not bad imo. I would try it in a few scenarios, preferably in good light and then make a decision after that. I wouldn't go straight out and buy another lens.
A 35mm on a crop comes up at 50mm which is too narrow for landscapes unless you doing panoramic shots
Yeah, you kind of need to be on top of something in the foreground with UWA otherwise stuff just looks small and far awayAgree on that, I find UWA very tricky, anything beyond 24mm FF equiv and I always end up cropping stuff out. Just not my cuppa
intimate landscape
Do you edit your images or are these straight out of camera jpeg? Processing makes a big difference.
What software do you use, and when you say slightly what sort of changes do you make? Have you made much exposure change in the castle pic?No, they are taken in RAW and processed "ever so slightly"
I’m not familiar with that software tbh. RAW photos almost always need a little sharpening added, and sometimes a small tweak in clarity can help too. Don’t make the mistake most newbies make though and overdo these adjustmentsI'm using Faststone at the moment. The only adjustments I made to the castle photo was a small crop and added a little contrast.
There are some basic tools at the bottom in Faststone…
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And on the left too...
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You move your cursor up or left and you get a tool panel, to the top and you get thumbnails and some basic tools and to the right you get the file / picture details.
I've never use the tools, I only use it for slideshows as the built in Windows on doesn't work on my pc as it shifts everything over to the right..