River Our Valley from Vianden Castle - C&C Welcome (Focus)

[TheBigE]

Here is one of the shots I took from Vianden Castle in Luxembourg. No tripod and handheld, but reasonably focused. I focused my lens in manual at roughly 1 meter prior to shooting. However, I would like to know how I could improve image sharpness throughout, given that I am not using a tripod. Maybe it is the best it can be, but I welcome feedback.

I braced myself along side the wall and took a deep breath and held before pressing the shutter release.

ISO 200 f/22 18mm Focal Length at 1/30s Shutter Speed

[Geoff F]

Possibly a bit on the 'heavy side' at the top? Would a 4 x 5 ratio crop be worth trying?

Everything else looks good to me.

[Shadowman]

Nicely framed.

[bnnrcn]

Nice image, I would crop it from the top as the framing is a bit too much there

[Chri5]

+1 on what everyone else said but dot take all the top away. I would leave just enough to keep the frame. Nice shot BTW.

[TheBigE]

Possibly a bit on the 'heavy side' at the top? Would a 4 x 5 ratio crop be worth trying?

Everything else looks good to me.

Thanks Geoff - I tried 4x5 Crop ratio, really did not hit the balance of side and top framing. Basically lost the side framing to get in any top framing.

[TheBigE]

Thanks John, Binnur and Chris. Here is it with a tighter crop trying to keep the side and top framing in place.



I am still wondering how I could have improved the sharpness or focus in the far distance. Maybe that is haze and atmospheric disturbance that makes the mountains in the far distance look soft.

[Geoff F]

That crop looks fine to me. I think you need to be a bit soft in the far distance in order to give an appearance of depth and distance from the foreground. I suspect that although a merge of two or more focus points may have given a sharper distant area it could look a bit artificial.

[IzzieK]

Can you add emphasis on the clouds to make the whole image pop? Just a suggestion...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Erik,

I think you could have improved the distant sharpness by better use of hyper-focal distance principle.

Perhaps that's what you attempted, but 'under cooked' it (as I always seem to), by not focusing quite far enough 'in' to the scene to ensure the distance is sharp enough, for fear of losing it in the foreground?


I don't know how much post processing you have already done in LR6, but I think the apparent sharpness could be improved by selective application of Local Contrast Enhancement (LCE) = Clarity in LR - and also selective sharpening of the distant parts.

Atmospherics and the flat lighting have not helped you with distant contrast either.

As some have suggested; the sky could also benefit from a slight selective contrast boost, although a light touch is called for; or it may easily look over processed and lead to the sky competing with the ground subjects.

I prefer the second crop, although I might have allowed a slither more masonry at the top.

Hope that helps, Dave

[TheBigE]

Can you add emphasis on the clouds to make the whole image pop? Just a suggestion...

Thanks Izzie. Will give it a go in PS.

[TheBigE]

Hi Erik,

I think you could have improved the distant sharpness by better use of hyper-focal distance principle.

Perhaps that's what you attempted, but 'under cooked' it (as I always seem to), by not focusing quite far enough 'in' to the scene to ensure the distance is sharp enough, for fear of losing it in the foreground?


I don't know how much post processing you have already done in LR6, but I think the apparent sharpness could be improved by selective application of Local Contrast Enhancement (LCE) = Clarity in LR - and also selective sharpening of the distant parts.

Atmospherics and the flat lighting have not helped you with distant contrast either.

As some have suggested; the sky could also benefit from a slight selective contrast boost, although a light touch is called for; or it may easily look over processed and lead to the sky competing with the ground subjects.

I prefer the second crop, although I might have allowed a slither more masonry at the top.

Hope that helps, Dave

Dave, I would agree that I missed the hyperlocal distance by a bit, not much but enough to throw off the fall distance landscape. I tried focusing at an object nearly 1 meter away before; the shot, but I guess that was not sufficient.

I worked it a bit in PS...still not sure, pretty rough but seems like a touch over processed. Going to let this latest version sit a bit and see how I feel.

[IzzieK]

Better Erik...I tested your image on Photoshop CS6 with the Brightness at -41 and Contrast at 23. It looks almost similar to yours here. I could have opted for more solid texture but it might ruin the image a bit. I took the middle road in pp.

[Rebel]

Nice idea Erik but the composition bothers me a bit.

I would of tried to place the road and dam? about a 1/3 away from the right edge of the building window. Where it is now my eyes just concentrate on the right side of the image.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Erik,

The latest version certainly looks a lot sharper front to back now.

With the contrast enhancement, you seem to have brought it right to the foreground trees and flowers, areas I'd have tailed it off to zero since, being closer, they already had sufficient contrast.

Also the edges are a bit rough around the portal in places - oddly, there also seems to be some perspective differences at play, most noticeable when you flick between the images in Lytebox here.

Cheers, Dave