Getting perfect focus and depth of field is something that has long frustrated landscape photographers. Back in the old days of film you had to rely on an in-depth understanding of the theory of focal lengths, apertures, and hyper-focal distances. Then, after you'd dialed in your compositions and settings you'd squint through the viewfinder, hold down the depth of field preview button, and hit go.
This is still an acceptable way to get good depth of field and focus for your shots, and paired with enough experience this technical approach can yield wonderful results. But thanks to the advent of digital cameras you now have a tool that makes getting the right focus and depth of field even easier, and much less technical: live view. Here's how it works...
And remember, in some situations you might reach the physical limitations of your lens, and that is okay. It happens to everyone. But it is possible to still achieve amazing photographs if you follow the four steps I've laid out.
1. Get farther away from your foreground subject!
2. Zoom out or use a wide lens!
3. Focus Stack!
4. Most importably, think abstractly. Sometimes the most abstract images are the most interesting.
And that's it, a sure fire method for getting razor sharp focus and perfect depth of field for any landscape shot, just by using some help from our friend, live view.
If you would like to know more about Joshua Cripps, see his beautiful artwork or find out more about his photography tutorials, visit his website, YouTube channel and his Facebook page!
Joshua Cripps Gets Focused