Landscapes with 18-55 VR ?

[dspindle]

<p>I've been trying to shoot landscapes with my Nikon 18-55 VR lens. I've been shooting at 18mm and I want close foreground as well as distant background in sharp focus. Since there is no dof or distance scale, I've been eyeballing the hyperfocal distance (from dof master). I've tested over and over, and the best that I can say, is that the distant background at f/8 and f/11 are less soft than at other apertures. The foreground at f/8 through f/22 is sharp, but the background is never in sharp focus.<br>

Am I asking to much of this little lens? What lens, hopefully at less or around $500 would you recommend? I've been looking at the 20mm 2.8 AF-D. I have a D90.<br>

Thanks!<br>

Dave</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>try manually focusing a little further into the composition, the old rule of thumb was to focus about a third of the way into the composition.</p>

[andylynn]

<p>DOF won't be increased by a more expensive lens. And on DX diffusion kicks in sooner so you start losing sharpness at about f/11. That limitation is a bit of a pain, but basically just in terms of the issues you've described here the only substantial improvement you should see from a higher quality lens is a focus scale.</p>

[sunilmendiratta]

<p>May i suggest one thing if that is acceptable to you. Take more than 1 shot. One for focus on foreground second focus on background with same aperture and shutter speeds.<br>

You can use photoshop to merge these two shots and will get the DOF.</p>

<p>Regards,<br>

Sunil</p>

 

[Michael R Freeman]

<blockquote>

<p><em>"I've been shooting at 18mm and I want close foreground as well as distant background in sharp focus."</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>How "close" is the close foreground? At your feet or 5 to 10 feet away?</p>

<p>Unless your foreground subject is <strong>really close</strong>, with a short focal length (i.e. wide angle) lens you are better off focusing on infinity if you want the distant background subjects to be pin sharp, and let the foreground fall where it may. Run the numbers for f/11 in your DOF calculator, and you'll see that focusing the lens to 10ft only gains you 15 inches of additional close focus acceptable sharpness zone compared to focusing the lens to 100ft. The difference between 10ft and 1000 ft is even more insignificant ... focusing to 10ft only gains you about 18 inches of additional close focus acceptable sharpness zone compared to focusing to 1000ft. The difference between a focus point of 100ft and 1000ft ... 2-1/4 inches!</p>

<p>My point is that if you want the distant background to be pin sharp in landscape vistas, then you need to focus on the farthest point you want to be pin sharp. Hyperfocal focusing is much more useful when your subject field covers a much narrower distance range, i.e. your closest subject is 2ft and your distant subject is 20ft.</p>

[Two23]

<p>Try, in this order:<br>

1. focus point half way into the scene<br>

2. Focus stacking (software, takes several shots from tripod)<br>

3. Nikon 24mm PCE lens. This will likely do what you want.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

[jenkins]

<p><strong>Am I asking to much of this little lens?</strong></p>

<p>That little lens is mighty.<strong><br /></strong></p>

[dspindle]

<p>Thanks to all! Your responses have all been very helpful. I really did not want to dislike this lens, since for all other applications it has been wonderful. <br>

Michael, I checked your numbers, and you are correct. What I was trying to do however, was get good focus with distant background and a foreground subject appx 3 feet from the camera.<br>

Kent, I am going to take a look at Helicon Focus, since I've heard very good things about it.<br>

Here is a quote from Brenda Tharp I found last night in her book..."<em>For most landscapes, it's more pleasing to the eye if the foreground is sharp and the background falls into softness, as that is the natural way the eye would see the scene.</em>" Hmmm.....maybe I'm being to fussy!<br>

Thanks<br>

Dave</p>