With my new camera equipment, I’ve decided to get more deliberate and technical with some of my photography from here on out so I need some experienced photographers’ help on why this picture isn’t in focus from front to back. I shot it with the following equipment and settings:
- Sony a7 III full frame
- Sigma 24-70mm art lens at 70mm
- SS 1/5 sec
- f/11
- ISO 250
- Tripod
- Two second timer before shutter release
- Forgot to turn off image stabilization
- Auto, single point focus about half way into flower field
- No wind that I can remember
These are the options I thought of to try and improve the focus of the entire image next time:
- Definitely turn image stabilization off when using a tripod I’ve read multiple places
- Shoot at a wider angle, closer to 24mm
- Shoot at a faster Shutter speed, which would then bump up my ISO
- Shoot at a smaller aperture, maybe f/13 or f/16 which would also bump up my ISO, and I hate to do too much of that.
So I have three questions:. 1) Why do you think I failed to nail the focus in this image? 2) Do you think the things I listed above would help me get a better focused landscape image next time? and 3) What else can I do that will help me nail the focus besides focus stacking? I don’t think I’m reading to tackle that type of post processing yet.
Thanks so much for any help you can offer. 💖
Offshoots Photography 
it maybe the single point focus. maybe a more dynamic focus would help. also since the dof is in question, increasing your f-stop would help. i would not worry much about your iso. i usually shoot at my lowest iso. if i want more dof, i increase my f-stop. since i am usually trying to shoot quickly, i use my exposure compensation. my usual focus is an over all “matrix” unless there is something specific i just want to focus on. also i generally use a more “matrix” metering which is why i use my exposure comp more often.. hope this helps
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That helps, thanks. I went out yesterday and increased the f-stop to f/14 and manual adjusted the ISO for exposure instead of the SS so I could keep my SS faster, one because I didn’t use my tripod and two because there were birds flying through the scene and the didn’t want them to blur. (I think I’m on multi matrix metering and could have more easily used my exposure compensation dial to change ISO/exposure, but didnt think about it and just went in and changed the actually ISO settings). I still used single focus because I hadn’t read your comment yet. If I am still having trouble I will try wide focus next time too.
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i dont think you really need to mess with the iso. set it for not more than 100 and forget it. unless you are in a very very low light situation were you need to boost the sensitivity as it is very dark use what ever focus system your camera has based on the subject. if you really only want that one fence post (example only) then a more spot focus would be mostly ideal as would a more spot metering to get the right dof. if your lens isnt fast enough, then you may need to adjust the iso to help the camera adjust to the scene. also it depends on the focal length of your lens. can you zoom in or out to achieve the desired subject and the desired dof. exposure comp can really benefit and is faster at times depending on which shooting mode you are in (s, a ,m ,p…) you may not need the tripod if you have image stabilization. also, maybe an ND filter might help in certain situations.
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You’re right I shouldn’t need to mess with the iso but I was taking some bracket shots to get some slightly under exposed images so as not to blow out the sky as much because there were some really dramatic clouds I wanted to grab the details of. I should have mentioned that. I was in manual mode. The images I liked the exposures of are at an ISO of between 250 and 600 depending on the lighting of the sky (they’re all sky landscape shots) that’s with a SS of 1/500 and f/14 on a 24-70mm lens. I’m surprised they are that high ISO for daytime light but there were lots of clouds.
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Maybe a polarizer filter and/or a UV/ skylight filter might be of benefit to pulling those skies and clouds
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Yes, that could be helpful. Good idea.
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🙂
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