ISO Issues

[crockny]

SK66 - where do you see this in the exif "(your exif showed subject distance of 3.8m)"? I've been trying hyperfocal distance and bookmarked the DOF chart on my blackberry but have trouble guesstimating the distance of my nearest subject ... and how do you set your focus to say 5 feet when the focus ring only has a few vague markings?

[sk66]

Originally Posted by crockny

SK66 - where do you see this in the exif "(your exif showed subject distance of 3.8m)"? I've been trying hyperfocal distance and bookmarked the DOF chart on my blackberry but have trouble guesstimating the distance of my nearest subject ... and how do you set your focus to say 5 feet when the focus ring only has a few vague markings?

If you go to the exif for the pic on flickr it's near the bottom of the list.
focus distance: 4.875m ( I misquoted the info)

As for accurately focusing at hyperfocal distance, I don't. I estimate and autofocus on a spot and recompose

[crockny]

Well that's what I've been doing, but it's kinda hit or miss at this point -- I guess this is something that practice makes more intuitive as you go along? I hope?

[sk66]

Originally Posted by crockny

Well that's what I've been doing, but it's kinda hit or miss at this point -- I guess this is something that practice makes more intuitive as you go along? I hope?

Practice helps, but the real key is giving yourself more room....
Wider lenses at smaller apertures make it less critical. Above 100mm it's fairly pointless, jut focus 1/3 into the scene and it'll be close to as good as you can get. (actually, 50mm is about where I stop caring about hyperfocal distance)

[crockny]

Well I have the Sigma 10-22mm now and that's my "focus" ... I want close, sharp foreground interest with an equally sharp background ...

[Doug Sundseth]

They're pretty much alternate names (at least in common use) for the same thing. The idea is to take multiple different shots from the same place and with different exposures (varying the shutter speed to change the exposure, normally), then manually or automatically combining the images to get a better exposure throughout the frame.

Photoshop CS5 does this pretty well if you already have it. Photomatix does it well, for a lower price (though without the other capabilities provided by Photoshop). There are many other choices as well, of course, but those are probably the most often used.

[EOBeav]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

Two more issues: At f/22, diffraction softness can be an issue as well. Your sharpest aperture is probably in the f/8 to f/11 range.

f/16 is also an acceptable aperture value for shots like this.