So after riding to this place probably around 30 times and around 500 shots… I think I finally might have one that works! I had clouds, the sun shining on the trees, a cloud shadowing half of the trees and geese flying in the frame…maybe? If my settings were good, this is starting to work?
Specific Feedback Requested
Anything, does the grass look better? Sharper than my last image?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D3400
ISO 200
70mm
f/14
1/200
Adjusted exposure by -.25, highlights +28, contrast +15, shadows +15, whites +22, blacks +12, (I also slightly adjusted temp,tint, vibrance, because after doing the prior adjustments the sky looked weird, added note, I’m disappointed that the LR for my iPad can’t do local adjustments, so the adjustments I was doing was just trying to make the clouds stand out more.)
One thing I noticed is that you’ve got DOF issues with the fg grass being out of focus but things get more in focus the further away they are. You could crop off the bottom until you reached sharpness.
Hi Vanessa,
One thing you could try if you are having DOF issues is to shoot multiple frames and then focus stack them in PS. Checking my Photo Pills DOF app the best you could do with 70mm @ f14 and have everything sharp is from 38’11" to infinity. For an image like this I would have focused one frame on the FG, the next on the MG and the last on the BG.
I particularly like the light on the trees on the left side. I hope you do not mind, but here is a rework that emphasizes that. The light helps to define the trees a bit more and adds another layer to the scene. Some of the FG grass is OOF so I cropped a little from there also.I realize the crop is rather radical and just my opinion of course, but I thought I would throw it out there and see what you thought.
@Ed_Lowe Hi Ed! Thanks for looking and your inputs. I think my 2 biggest problems in the field are 1) getting distracted by everything around me, like animals. So I keep changing my settings, and sometimes forget to change back. 2) and this is something I really need to change, my glasses get too dark outside so I can’t always see what I’m doing very well through the viewfinder or on the screen. It drives me crazy! I have to get some regular ones.
I don’t mind your crop except for the fact that it takes away my birds in the clouds. I’ve posted this same scene before where all the trees are bright but I thought it might look neat with the shadows of the clouds, but maybe not!
I don’t have ps, but don’t you think if I had made the aperture smaller it would have helped with the foreground?
Hi Vanessa,
I hear you on the glasses as I have the same problem with them turning dark. I have to slid them down my nose sometimes to check things. As far as stopping down you will loss some sharpness in the image although I have done that on occasion myself. I just checked my Photo Pills app again and with the 70 mm at f22 you theoretically should have everything in focus from 12’ to ∞ if you focus on something 24’ away from the camera. At $10 the app is money well spent as it has a wealth of information on it.
I guess the bottom line is shoot what makes you happy. I am a firm believer in the more we shoot and incorporate the advice we agree with the more our photography improves. I hope that helps.
I am glad you caught that @Igor_Doncov . I incorrectly assumed the D3400 was full frame. I checked again and the 70mm @ f14 the DOF sharpness would theoretically be 29’2’’ to ∞ if you focused at 60’. At f22 if you focused at 36’ the DOF would extend from 17’11" to ∞. My apologies for the mistake, Vanessa.
@70mm @ f14 the DOF sharpness would theoretically be 29’2’’ to ∞ if you focused at 60’. At f22 if you focused at 36’ the DOF would extend from 17’11" to ∞.
I’m not sure I understand, but do you mean that that the focal point doesn’t start until 17 feet away from me? If that’s the case then that explains why I get better results from my short lens for something like this.
No problem, Vanessa. Let’s say you were using the 70mm @ f22 and there was a tree in the field that was 36’ away from you. If you focused on the tree everything in the image should theoretically be sharp from 17’11" to ∞. Of course everything would change with a different focal length or f stop. Another thing you could try if your Nikon has the feature is to zoom in using the rear LCD screen to check that the most important thing to you is in focus. You might want to check out the Photo Pills app as I find it quite useful. I hope this helps.
DOF is related to the Circle of Confusion. Basically the lens is focused on a plane that’s parallel to the camera. Perfect focus occurs only on objects on that plane. The other objects within the DOF are not perectly focused but so close that the eye can’t tell the difference. That’s called the circle of confusion. Since the higher f stops use a smaller diaphragm they capture a bigger portion of that circle and we see it as a larger DOF through the camera.
