The Wife, Mount Rushmore, & Diffraction

[Fractal]

Picture the stereotypical vacation photo: the wife standing facing you with a smile and ~1000 ft. away is a landmark of some sort (like Mount Rushmore).

What's the best settings to get your subject and the landmark (or other such far away landscape) in focus?

Reflexively I'd step the aperture down to max (take f/22 for example), focus on the subject, and take the shot; however, recently I've been concerned with diffraction interfering with the final result.

Someone mentioned not going above f/11, but would that give me deep enough DoF to achieve what I want?

[jdepould]

Depends on the camera. If it's a high res crop sensor, f/11 is probably about the crossover point.

Putting a little bit of extra distance between you and your subject can help a little.

[IABoomer]

You might want to search this forum for information on hyperfocal distance, which will help you get everything from a certain distance to infinity in appreciable focus.

[Edsport]

If i wanted both to be in perfect focus i would put cam on tripod and take 2 shots. One with wife expose properly and the other with the background. Combine them both in Post processing. There is free programs that will do this for you. I think CombineZ is one of them...

[ravncat]

Thinking about Diffraction = thinking about apparent image size (viewing distance and print size combined). Diffraction will soften the details in the plane of focus, at large print sizes and close viewing distances, a D3x could exhibit diffraction effects at even f 5.6 - (Depends alot on your definitions of circles of confusion and your "acceptable level of sharpness")


No matter how much depth of field you have, there's only one plane of focus... As a result, even with diffraction's softening - it can be worthwhile in that you are trading off detail in the critical focus plane for more depth of field. If you need the DOF, I wouldn't worry about diffraction too much.

The only solutions I can give you - (and this isn't a "technically" correct description, but will suffice in the real world) - Try a wide angle lens, with a more inherently large depth of field. Or lessen your requirement for a large depth of field - by putting more space between you and subject - and less between the subject you want and background you want.

If you are very concerned, you can bracket aperture. Though - I tend to think a softer background accentuates the feeling of distance - and is natural, I would suggest letting the monument be slightly out of focus, and putting the plane of focus onto your wife. Not worrying about getting everything in "depth of field" will mean you can use an aperture of F8 and not worry.

Though - if you want the depth of field - just make the small sacrifice - unless you need absolute detail, don't worry about it . You can get away with some sharpening - and besides- who wan'ts all the flaws in skin and pores to be perfectly sharp in such a photo anyway