I dont like how this came out (Page 2): The Image was shot on a cloudy day, and yes it is a bit flat as mentioned. The problem is F8 just doesn't cut it when u want everything in...

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

The Image was shot on a cloudy day, and yes it is a bit flat as mentioned. The problem is F8 just doesn't cut it when u want everything in focus.
The two seconds is too long as I didnt have a filter with me. , making part of the water blown out.

Next trip back I'll experiment with different Fstops and time and see what I get.
F8 and be there, but I always say, F8 and dont be late.....

Erdos2 Loc: Vancouver, WA

bdk wrote:

The Image was shot on a cloudy day, and yes it is a bit flat as mentioned. The problem is F8 just doesn't cut it when u want everything in focus.
The two seconds is too long as I didnt have a filter with me. , making part of the water blown out.

Next trip back I'll experiment with different Fstops and time and see what I get.
F8 and be there, but I always say, F8 and dont be late.....

If it is not cloudy, you might have more difficulty with blown out water.

If opening up the aperture does not allow enough depth of field, you might try focus stacking. (I am not expert in this area, so it may or may not be a good solution in this scene.) You also may need an ND filter.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

bdk wrote:

This was shot on a tripod, wired remote, VR off, at 44mm at ISO64, 2 sec exposure and F32, I chose F32 because I wanted the hill to be in focus and the rocks in front also in focus . The only thing I wanted to be blurry ( silky) was the water.

I do not like how the dead leaves on the hill came out....to me they look off or blurry or something.
any ideas what to do next time? Or should I go down to F8 and really make them blurry?
any suggestions are appreciated.

Why would you want the leaves to show up anyway? Isn't the main subject the silky water? Simply darken the background and surrounding leaves and see if that improves the overall image and shows up the main subject more (which it should), that is where you want the viewer to look.

Shootist Loc: Wyoming

I realize your question addresses sharpness and how to obtain it. Understanding that sharpness is mostly desirable, in my opinion it is not always king. As I looked at your photo the sharpness or lack of it was not a factor in its appeal to me. What was distracting from all that was right about your photo was the large blob of brown that was so light and in your face that my eye had a hard time moving away from it. To me there was nothing of interest there so that distraction made it difficult to enjoy the rest. If you will forgive me I copied your photo (and since completely deleted from my computer) and increased the darkness of the leafy area with the burn tool. When the luminance of the brown area approximated some of the other features in the photo I found myself less detracted and able to see the attractiveness of the other features. This is just one man's opinion for what it is worth.

OZMON Loc: WIGAN UK

it could be that there was a slight breeze, and the time lapse could cause the effect.

JuxtaposePictures Loc: San Diego

bdk wrote:

This was shot on a tripod, wired remote, VR off, at 44mm at ISO64, 2 sec exposure and F32, I chose F32 because I wanted the hill to be in focus and the rocks in front also in focus . The only thing I wanted to be blurry ( silky) was the water.

I do not like how the dead leaves on the hill came out....to me they look off or blurry or something.
any ideas what to do next time? Or should I go down to F8 and really make them blurry?
any suggestions are appreciated.

There can be a few things that might have conspired to not give you the sharpness you were looking for. Diffraction was mentioned which at your f-stop would have been a factor. The shutter speed also in conjunction with your tripod. You don't mention what your tripod in detail but if it is a lightweight or low-quality tripod it may have vibrated during the shoot, this is more likely to happen if you had extended your tripod high, especially if you extended the center column. Another factor is your lens. Although your D810 is capable of astounding images the Tamron you're shooting with might not have the sharpness you are looking for. I don't have that lens but after looking at a few reviews it seems its edge and corner sharpness isn't great and is noticeably less than it's center sharpness. You also don't mention your file type. Did you shoot in jpeg or raw? If in jpeg you could try bumping your sharpness in camera but I'd recommend shooting in raw. If you shot in raw your raw processor will make a difference in sharpness, contrast, and other settings. If you processed the image in Lightroom, for example, you could try higher sharpness settings. Overall though I feel like it was either your lens, tripod, or a combination of the two as even the rocks in the foreground look soft to me. You might also need to perform an AF Fine Tune on your lens.

wolfman

bdk wrote:

The Image was shot on a cloudy day, and yes it is a bit flat as mentioned. The problem is F8 just doesn't cut it when u want everything in focus.
The two seconds is too long as I didnt have a filter with me. , making part of the water blown out.

Next trip back I'll experiment with different Fstops and time and see what I get.
F8 and be there, but I always say, F8 and dont be late.....

As long as you have a steady tripod and it's not windy, I'll give you a suggestion on how to get a sharp foreground and background.
If this doesn't work it could be a possible problem with the lens. Your posted image seems too be either a missed focus or camera movement issue vs. a lens problem.

1) for an image like this I would shoot around 24-26mm
2) ISO 64-100
3) f/16
4) focus on something aprox. 5' in front of you, and make sure you don't accidentally change it when you recompose your image
This will give you a DOF of 2.42'-Infinity of acceptable sharpness.
5) calculate the proper exposure time.

I have done exposures anywhere from 2 sec. all the way up to 252 sec. with excellent results.

http://static.uglyhedgehog.com/upload/2016/1/7/1452188640738-dsc_2160.jpg
ISO100, f/16, 26mm, 120sec.

The reason the water looks blue is the result of using the Lee Big Stopper and not changing the color balance.

Bob

wolfman

A lot of bad advice in this thread!

8by10

Unless we have access to the original image, its difficult to determine if there is an issue with the leaves or not.
If you want to try a larger f stop, get a neutral density filter (such as B+W). A 3 or 6 stop should suffice.
Also, try using a two second self timer and mirror lockup to avoid camera shake if you sre manually pressing the shutter button with you finger.

wolfman

8by10 wrote:

Unless we have access to the original image, its difficult to determine if there is an issue with the leaves or not.
If you want to try a larger f stop, get a neutral density filter (such as B+W). A 3 or 6 stop should suffice.
Also, try using a two second self timer and mirror lockup to avoid camera shake if you sre manually pressing the shutter button with you finger.

There's really no need for the original image. I found nothing really sharp in this image. Forget about the leaves, even the branches in front of the leaves are not sharp. Follow the steps that I listed above and you will get a sharp foreground and background. Of course, if it's windy, then anything moving will be blurry.

Bob

8by10

This site only lets you upload low resolution images. So you get a bunch of useless opinions. I like his image. I would love to see the original image to make an objective assessment.

papa Loc: Rio Dell, CA

bdk wrote:

thank you, I had read about diffraction but never thought it would come into play at F32, next time i'll drop down a few stops and try again.....its a very scenic stream and I shoot there
often.

Most lenses will produce diffraction effects at f/16, so peak sharpness on them would be f/5.6-f/11, depending on the lens.

papa Loc: Rio Dell, CA

bdk wrote:

This was shot on a tripod, wired remote, VR off, at 44mm at ISO64, 2 sec exposure and F32, I chose F32 because I wanted the hill to be in focus and the rocks in front also in focus . The only thing I wanted to be blurry ( silky) was the water.

I do not like how the dead leaves on the hill came out....to me they look off or blurry or something.
any ideas what to do next time? Or should I go down to F8 and really make them blurry?
any suggestions are appreciated.

Looking at the EXIF I see this was shot in Manual, 44mm(28-75), ISO 64, f/32, 2 sec., 0 EV.

Number one error is it suffers softening from diffraction. Diffraction set in on even the best lenses at f/11 and gets progressively worse to the smallest aperture. Even my high end glass shoots best f/4-f/8.

I would shoot it like this: From a heavy tripod, with 6-10 stop ND on lens in RAW + JPEG, Aperture priority, Evaluative metering (Matrix?) 28mm, ISO 100, at 3 stops f/5.6, f/8, and f/11, manual focus for hyperfocal and bracketed three frames at each stop at 0 EV and up 1/3 to 1/2 at each stop for two additional frames (0+1/3+2/3 or 0+1/2+1). That would give you nine shots to cover any needed PP at one f stop. That's nine shots to work with in RAW. You only need to learn to make a great camera work for you. My rule is I never shoot past f/11 and even there I see softening from diffraction, so f/4-f/8,9 is it for me. To see the technical information for a specific lens I use; http://www.imaging-resource.com/ and https://www.dxomark.com/, as they do extensive testing and give very comprehensive results. It's eye opening.

jcboy3

bdk wrote:

This was shot on a tripod, wired remote, VR off, at 44mm at ISO64, 2 sec exposure and F32, I chose F32 because I wanted the hill to be in focus and the rocks in front also in focus . The only thing I wanted to be blurry ( silky) was the water.

I do not like how the dead leaves on the hill came out....to me they look off or blurry or something.
any ideas what to do next time? Or should I go down to F8 and really make them blurry?
any suggestions are appreciated.

The simplest thing to do is to take two images; one with focus on the rocks in the stream designed to blur the water, and one with focus on the leaves designed to get sharp images of the leaves. Blend them in Photoshop or some other image editor.

papa Loc: Rio Dell, CA

This is a textbook exercise in a wide angle lens shot (14mm-28mm). One click is not happy with this shot, so exercise is my humble opinion.