How do you get everything in focus?

JoeWhitley

JoeWhitley

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Joe
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Hi guys,

Hope you're all well.

I've recently been trying my hand at golf course photography and it's incredibly hard.

I've been told to shoot at dawn or dusk because the light is best (can anyone explain that?) and have tried that but with the sun so low, there are a lot of shadows. It makes it really hard to get the flag in focus from afar.

I was wondering if anyone has any tips on getting it all in focus? One thing I struggle with is when the sky is really striking - I focus on that to make sure I capture the clouds, but that makes the flag either blurry or dark. I sort it in PP but I never think it looks as good as with natural light.

This is a good example:
5881140914_7620d9ac2f_b.jpg


I would really appreciate any tips you may have.

Thanks a lot,
Joe
 
That flag is clearly in the shade, for that hole, I would choose a time when it is not in the shade (if this is morning, then late afternoon would do it). Some holes will face different ways with trees in different locations.
 
Try to stop your lens down, i.e. switch to aperture priority mode and choose f-number of about 8 or 11, that will expand the depth of field. Also use a tripod and a cable release (or self-timer) to avoid shake blur

As for flag being dark, when you point your lens to the sky, your camera sets aperture/shatter speed to expose the sky correctly, but because sky is much brighter then the ground, you get the later underexposed. Try to use your camera's exposure lock function.
 
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gunnar said:
Try to stop your lens down, i.e. switch to aperture priority mode and choose f-number of about 8 or 11, that will expand the depth of field. Also use a tripod and a cable release (or self-timer) to avoid shake blur

As for flag being dark, when you point your lens to the sky, your camera sets aperture/shatter speed to expose the sky correctly, but because sky is much brighter then the ground, you get the later underexposed. Try to use your camera's exposure lock function.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. As soon as I figure out what it all means and how to do it I'll give it a go!
 
JoeWhitley said:
Thanks for that. As soon as I figure out what it all means and how to do it I'll give it a go!
Click to expand...

Start from your camera's user manual, it takes you through all that: aperture priority, self timer, exposure lock. Just take the manual along to the field and try how every single feature works.
 
To have everything in focus in a landscape shot, as in your golf coarse picture above

you need an aperture of f16 or f22

your focus point wants to be about a 1/3 of the way in, your flag is in about the right position.

switch to manual focus, aperture priority and use a tripod.

set either f16 or f22, focus manually on the flag (or a 1/3 of the way into the shot) and take the shot,

doesn't matter how slow the shutter speed is because you are using a tripod.

you will find everything is in focus from just in front of you and all the way to infinity.
 
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18%grey said:
To have everything in focus in a landscape shot, as in your golf coarse picture above

you need an aperture of f16 or f22

your focus point wants to be about a 1/3 of the way in, your flag is in about the right position.

switch to manual focus, aperture priority and use a tripod.

set either f16 or f22, focus manually on the flag (or a 1/3 of the way into the shot) and take the shot,

doesn't matter how slow the shutter speed is because you are using a tripod.

you will find everything is in focus from just in front of you and all the way to infinity.
Click to expand...
+1 :thumbs:
 
gunnar said:
Start from your camera's user manual, it takes you through all that: aperture priority, self timer, exposure lock. Just take the manual along to the field and try how every single feature works.
Click to expand...

Thanks Alex. I definitely need to get to grips with the manual setting so I'll do just that.
Cheers mate.
 
18%grey said:
To have everything in focus in a landscape shot, as in your golf coarse picture above

you need an aperture of f16 or f22

your focus point wants to be about a 1/3 of the way in, your flag is in about the right position.

switch to manual focus, aperture priority and use a tripod.

set either f16 or f22, focus manually on the flag (or a 1/3 of the way into the shot) and take the shot,

doesn't matter how slow the shutter speed is because you are using a tripod.

you will find everything is in focus from just in front of you and all the way to infinity.
Click to expand...

Thanks Kelvin. As soon as I get to grips with the manual setting I'll give it a go :)
 
18%grey said:
doesn't matter how slow the shutter speed is because you are using a tripod.
Click to expand...

It's so bright that even if you shoot at f/16, you can probably still do it handheld. You might be able to get everything you want in focus as low as f/8 or f/11 as well. Play around with the various apertures, take a shot at each one and see how you like the results.
 
freecom2 said:
It's so bright that even if you shoot at f/16, you can probably still do it handheld. You might be able to get everything you want in focus as low as f/8 or f/11 as well. Play around with the various apertures, take a shot at each one and see how you like the results.
Click to expand...

f16 is rather extreme. You often see extreme apertures used when people haven't really got a grip on what they're doing and think that the smaller the aperture the sharper the picture. I like to stay away from small apertures, diffraction kicks in and you lose contrast and often these small apertures aren't needed anyway.

Hyperfocal charts are a good place to start and I think that it's often worth remembering that many scenes and compositions don't need or can even accommodate a depth of field from an inch to infinity. For example, if nothing in your frame is closer than 30 feet why would you need the first 30 feet in focus?
 
JoeWhitley said:
Hi guys,


I've been told to shoot at dawn or dusk because the light is best (can anyone explain that?) and have tried that but with the sun so low, there are a lot of shadows. It makes it really hard to get the flag in focus from afar.
Click to expand...

This is often referred to as the Golden Hour. It works well for landscapes and is probably the light most landscape photographers will seek out. It might not quite work for all situations, I guess you need to make the call for the look you are after. Also have a look at the Sunny f16 rule - this is just a guide but its quite a simple rule of thumb when shooting outdoors and calculating exposure settings in your head.


JoeWhitley said:
I was wondering if anyone has any tips on getting it all in focus? One thing I struggle with is when the sky is really striking - I focus on that to make sure I capture the clouds, but that makes the flag either blurry or dark. I sort it in PP but I never think it looks as good as with natural light.
Click to expand...


As mentioned Aperture is really the key to Depth of Field however there is a correlation between it, subject distance, focal length and sensor size. The DepthOfField Master is a great little application to punch in figures and let it calculate how much of the scene should be in focus.

To keep the flag or foreground bright without 'blowing' the sky you need a Slot In Graduated Neutral Density Filter to allow you to balance the range between the typical brightness of the sky compared to a typical foreground. I would tend to focus and expose on/for the flag as that I would say is what you want in focus and to be well exposed - clouds themselves aren't particularly distinct so you could maybe afford some loss of sharpness here which won't be detrimental to the final image and the brightness will be controlled with the ND Grad.



Andy
 
woof woof said:
f16 is rather extreme. You often see extreme apertures used when people haven't really got a grip on what they're doing and think that the smaller the aperture the sharper the picture. I like to stay away from small apertures, diffraction kicks in and you lose contrast and often these small apertures aren't needed anyway.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I wasn't sure exactly why f/16 when I thought f/8 was considered to be the optimum compromise between sharpness and lens performance degradation for most lenses.
 
I cant add anymore than has been added.
I am sure that is the 5th, the one the cows ate :eek:
and I think to get the light shoot early on that one.
 
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woof woof said:
f16 is rather extreme. You often see extreme apertures used when people haven't really got a grip on what they're doing
Click to expand...

Laughing so much, I nearly fell off my chair :lol:

First time in nearly 30 years of photography I have heard of using an aperture of f16 as extreme photography.

Classic :clap:
 
18%grey said:
To have everything in focus in a landscape shot, as in your golf coarse picture above

you need an aperture of f16 or f22

your focus point wants to be about a 1/3 of the way in, your flag is in about the right position.

switch to manual focus, aperture priority and use a tripod.

set either f16 or f22, focus manually on the flag (or a 1/3 of the way into the shot) and take the shot,

doesn't matter how slow the shutter speed is because you are using a tripod.

you will find everything is in focus from just in front of you and all the way to infinity.
Click to expand...

Dont use anything above f/16 or you will soften the whole image with diffraction;

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-diffraction.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction

A crop camera whould have the whole image focused before f/16 anyway.
 
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18%grey said:
Laughing so much, I nearly fell off my chair :lol:

First time in nearly 30 years of photography I have heard of using an aperture of f16 as extreme photography.

Classic :clap:
Click to expand...

Um, see my post above. And you dont need f/16 on a crop as the image circle is smaller, hense needs less of a tight aperture as it has a smaller image circle.

In 30 years I'm surprised this passed you by!
 
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18%grey said:
To have everything in focus in a landscape shot, as in your golf coarse picture above

you need an aperture of f16 or f22

your focus point wants to be about a 1/3 of the way in, your flag is in about the right position.

switch to manual focus, aperture priority and use a tripod.

set either f16 or f22, focus manually on the flag (or a 1/3 of the way into the shot) and take the shot,

doesn't matter how slow the shutter speed is because you are using a tripod.

you will find everything is in focus from just in front of you and all the way to infinity.
Click to expand...

+1:thumbs: Apart from I use F11- F16 as no need to use F22
 
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odd jim said:
Um, see my post above. And you dont need f/16 on a crop as the image circle is smaller, hense needs less of a tight aperture as it has a smaller image circle.

In 30 years I'm surprised this passed you by!
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim for that link to the Luminous-Landscape article. Interesting read.

One of the great things about photography, something new to learn every day. :)
 
Indeed!! I could write a book on stuff I've yet to learn (if that makes sense, lol!)
 
freecom2 said:
You'd be selling a book of blank pages? :lol: in my case, perhaps a whole series of blank books...
Click to expand...

A book? Don't be silly, it's a blank Encyclopaedia Britannica!
 
Based on this kind of shot..where would you meter on to get the best exposure for the whole scene. (I know a ND filter is the best option but as this is not available)

many thanks

Dan
 
Danzaroonie said:
Based on this kind of shot..where would you meter on to get the best exposure for the whole scene. (I know a ND filter is the best option but as this is not available)

many thanks

Dan
Click to expand...

If you are using the camera's reflective metering system the grass would be as good as anything. (It would get you close, in this shot anyway)
 
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