Connecticut shore at sunset

[jerry1550]

It was a very windy day and the weight I used to stablize my tripod could not stop the tiny movements. The photo is not as sharp as it could be because of this reason. Any CC welcome.

[Geoff F]

The foreground is perfectly sharp, Jerry, but you have quickly lost the sharpness towards the background. I suspect there is more than just being a windy day which is causing the problem.

What camera settings? Was your aperture fairly wide open? Ideally, I would have liked to shoot at F11 or narrower to gain more focus depth.

But that isn't always possible, particularly if it is a darkish scene or there is some subject or camera movement.

Alternatively, shoot with two or more focus points then combine the shots to increase the depth of sharp focus.

But once again, this is often difficult to achieve in real life.

And it needs suitable editing software to combine the shots.

An interesting scene though, and with good colour.

[jerry1550]

Geoff,
The camera settings: D80 with Nikkor 18-200 at 18mm f/20 at 1.3 sec. Most likely I miscalculated the depth of field.
Next time I will pay more attention to the background. Thanks.

[CNelson]

I like the shot. It doesn't bother me that the background isn't sharp as everything important seems to be in the foreground. Still it would be interesting to see the scene with sharpness into the background...just for comparison.

[Dave Humphries]

Geoff,
The camera settings: D80 with Nikkor 18-200 at 18mm f/20 at 1.3 sec. Most likely I miscalculated the depth of field.
Next time I will pay more attention to the background. Thanks.

Hi Jerry,

Did you focus on the nearest foreground object you wanted sharp?
I ask because at 18mm and f/20, it really shouldn't have been soft anywhere unless you focused incredibly close.

Even if it is (or soft by wind), by the time you downsized to 700px and sharpened it, that should hide it.

I am also puzzled by the sea horizon, it is flat, but there seems to be a 'ramp' in it, with the left flat bit higher up the frame than the right - I wondered whether it was a stitched panorama, but you didn't mention that?

Not all bad news - I like the composition and the exposure is good.

I have that lens and for a 10x zoom, the performance usually impresses me.

Welcome to the CiC forums from ....

[jerry1550]

Dave,
I have an application on android phone (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html) which tells you what settings should be to get the maximum depth of field, most likely I missed the distance by hair. I took few shots, but only this one I liked to do post processing, is not stitched.

[PRSearls]

I think its a very pleasing and lovely shot. Good color and composition. For me, the principle interest is the rocks in the foreground and middle distance, the far distance just adds more color and context to the shot.

I've got that app on my iPhone for computing the hyperfocal distance; it seems to work well the few times I've used it. Accurately setting the focus distance is the biggest problem. Sometimes I'll compute it for f/8 and shoot at f/11 to give myself a little extra insurance.

Paul S

[Dave Humphries]

I have an application on android phone (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html) which tells you what settings should be to get the maximum depth of field, most likely I missed the distance by hair. I took few shots, but only this one I liked to do post processing, is not stitched.

I use iDof Calc, dialling in f/20 and 18mm (for the Nikon D3000/5000/7000 series) gives a hyperfocal distance of 0.81m (32") and anything from 40.5cm to infinity should be OK.

However, if you focused on a rock at about 40cm (16"), or anything closer than say 2 foot 6 inches, that would throw infinity off.

As Paul says, a bit of extra usually doesn't hurt and to be honest, I usually go by instinct, as I don't often carry the iPod with me when photographing

[Daisy Mae]

Regardless of any flaws you may feel there to be Jerry...the sheer beauty of those blues and golds commands and holds the attention.

Welcome to CIC and I can't wait to see more.

[jerry1550]

Thank you all for your remarks, they are very helpful.