Learning to Photograph Mountain Scenery - Continued

[ajsmith]

Christina,

I can't comment on using the filter because I have never used one, but I think the composition of your images is great. I really like #2, the light is gorgeous.

[Brownbear]

A great BIG thank you to everyone for your helpful tips and advice. Truly appreciated! Next spring I will try this hike again, and no doubt I will be better prepared to capture the true beauty of the scenery.

Mike...

Thank you for advising on the haze. I too, now abhor haze. I was so surprised to see so much haze everywhere, up so high in pristine backcountry. (: Next year I will visit during the Spring before wildfire season and after a heavy rainfall. I have some close-up mountain images, too. Albeit taken in harsh light and haze so likely the same results. My husband joined me on this hike which was beautiful but grueling, and even involved climbing a couple of huge boulders (small cliff) with a rope and rappelling back down (scary going down no matter how small), and then of course I lost the small light weight tripod I purchased for this hike. (not stable enough anyway) Anyhow it was a great trip, full of great memories and I appreciate your teaching me all about haze.

L. Paul...

Thank you for the helpful tips on focusing. I will print and review your reply for future reference. I used my 24-200 mm lens because my wide angle lens included too much forest in the foreground. Also thank you for your edit which I think you did a wonderful job of. I will keep this image and revisit PP it at a later date.

And thank you for the advice on posting for feedback, and for your kind words. My image does not match the true beauty of the scenery, something that I have yet to be able to capture with mountains and I just find it frustrating. I opened expressing my disappointment because I feel that opens the door for others to feel totally comfortable advising on improvements needed. I will try your suggestion on my upcoming hazy mountains.

John...

Thank you for sharing. In the image I truly wanted the land mass was not included, and I'm not so sure I could have retained focus with recomposing because I would have had to reposition the camera to a different level. Nevertheless one day I will try this on a different scene. Thank you!

Grahame...

Thank you for all the extra tips and helpful advice. Truly appreciated as always. I will print for reference and eventually I will try BBF...

Allan...

Thank you for all the tips on focusing while using Lee filters. I do love these filters! They are easy to use and with more practice I know they will serve me well. It was you who recommended these to me a while ago. Truly appreciated.

David...

Thank you for your kind words. Truly appreciated.

Thank you to all!

[bnnrcn]

Hi Grahame, I always read books about photography and share some opinions in them with people in CinC. Actually all of the books I have been reading were suggested by the members of CinC.So, the members suggested those books because they read them before me and they valued those books. Landscape Photography books always suggest that it is very useful to use GND filters if someone is into landscape photography. So, I wouldn't undervalue text books and text book opinions.

I don't know if your comment about text book opinions refers to me , but I 'm only a member who inquires, shares, practices and I will carry on doing so. I'm the one who shared a video about different types of filters with Christina in one of the old threads because I had the intention of buying filters and I was inquiring too. Unfortunatelly I have to replace my camera with a better one first . The filters will have to wait

Excellent trial of your new GND filters Christina which certainly gives you an insight of what they can achieve in these situations which is of far greater value than some of the text book opinions that have been bounced around here lately. I do not see anything that immediately sticks out as an odd filter transition area.

With regard to the focusing difficulty on occasions I have simply lifted or removed the filter, focus (using BBF), re-compose as necessary and move the filter back to where I want it.

Whilst all the images are good in their own way I feel a bit of a sit back and play with the PP may be beneficial.

No 3 I feel has a fair bit more potential.

Grahame

[Brownbear]

Hi Binnur,

Just to say that I suspect that Grahame's comment is in reference to a different thread (Equipment area) in which there is a discussion on the pros/cons of using graduated filters. Upon my return I noted some of the cons of using graduated filters, and of course since this is the first time I've used filters I was worried about the possible detrimental effects.

Thank you for sharing that video. I hope you are able to purchase your filters soon. Well, worth the wait.

Hi Grahame, I always read books about photography and share some opinions in them with people in CinC. Actually all of the books I have been reading were suggested by the members of CinC.So, the members suggested those books because they read them before me and they valued those books. Landscape Photography books always suggest that it is very useful to use GND filters if someone is into landscape photography. So, I wouldn't undervalue text books and text book opinions.

I don't know if your comment about text book opinions refers to me , but I 'm only a member who inquires, shares, practices and I will carry on doing so. I'm the one who shared a video about different types of filters with Christina in one of the old threads because I had the intention of buying filters and I was inquiring too. Unfortunatelly I have to replace my camera with a better one first . The filters will have to wait

[Brownbear]

Hi Ali,

Thank you. Truly appreciated!

Christina,

I can't comment on using the filter because I have never used one, but I think the composition of your images is great. I really like #2, the light is gorgeous.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Christina I haven't read all of the comments in this thread yet but tonight I will read all of them .

I actually loved #1. I too have focusing problems when it gets dark while shooting sunsets. What I have done once is that I tried manual focusing and I turned the focus ring to the infinity sign on the focus ring. It worked fine. I like the composition in this shot.

I also like the light very much in #2.

Congratulations on your new filters

[Brownbear]

Thank you Binnur. I will try just that on my next sunset shot. Truly appreciated.

Hi Christina I haven't read all of the comments in this thread yet but tonight I will read all of them .

I actually loved #1. I too have focusing problems when it gets dark while shooting sunsets. What I have done once is that I tried manual focusing and I turned the focus ring to the infinity sign on the focus ring. It worked fine. I like the composition in this shot.

I also like the light very much in #2.

Congratulations on your new filters

[ajohnw]

I like 1 too. The amount of mist that can be around at times can be surprising.

On your focusing. I'm not keen on back button focusing. It can be useful to lock either focus or exposure using the usual lock button at times so one answer is to set this in the user modes. One for focus lock and another for exposure lock.

As Binnur pointed out focusing to infinity can work out. The person who produced the sums for this chart advocates focusing on infinity for landscape shots.



It needs a simple sum. In the case of your 24mm F8 the sum would be 24/8=3mm. That means that the camera will resolve items down to 3mm in the foreground. If it was grass for instance it would be recognisable as grass. It would be more than enough for the trees. If you had focused to infinity it would also try and resolve 3mm at that distance but physics will prevent that on the shot you posted. What this means on this shot is that all would be ok providing you focused more than 1/2 way into the shot.

He also gave an example of what resolutions mean in practice. Circle of confusion = focal length / aperture = resolution



The rules can also be used to deliberately blur things.



In this case the circle of confusion he has set are based on the height of the letters so the strokes that make them up demonstrate the effects of the settings. Here he has placed the signs past twice the focus point to increase the size of the circles of confusion

Curious thing is that the maths are based on the ones usually used for hyperfocal distance. The difference is that this one concentrates on how well things in the scene need to be resolved rather than a maximum amount of defocus error.

Googling Merklinger The Ins and Outs of Focusing should bring up a small booklet on the subject that his descendants have made freely available now. There are some interesting examples of shots in it showing the effects. Also a web page with less detail.

I've tried it on a wide angle close to the ground shot with the lens focused some way away and it worked out well. I chose to set a resolution of over twice what I needed to ensure I caught some detail in the smaller items.

John
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[Brownbear]

Hi John,

Thank you for sharing. The inclusion of the charts and examples is very helpful, and truly appreciated. Likely very helpful to many folks, and very nice of you to take the time to do.

[ajohnw]

If anyone wants to pursue this way of working on DOF I would suggest doing the search and reading the web page on it. It shouldn't be too hard going if the chart is kept in mind. He gives on example of taking a shot of some sort of animal. Not tried that yet but will do. The thing I like about it is that it's all fractions of some distance and that and the aperture are all that matters and the sum is easy to do roughly in the head.

The pdf has more maths, comparisons and shots in it.

John
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