DOF for landscapes

primeshooter wrote:

So, coming from the 700 which I shot with for 4 years, I would say that when I shot most landscapes I would be going for a "front to back sharpness" approach. I should start by saying I am talking about wide angle landscapes 20-24mm area. I'd usually set the lens to f11-f/16 and focus a 1/3 in (I didn't use hyperfocal per se) and boom, I'd have (in a way) "front to back sharpness". Obviously in reality it's more acceptable blur but I printed several shots which hang on my wall from this camera at 18"x12" and some much larger and they do look great - they do seem sharp front to back, even looking at them up close. Fair enough I guess...
Now, move forward to the D800 which I have had several months - I use it for portraiture and landscapes mainly. In my landscapes I found a large change has come about, I am isolating subjects in landscapes more, with subtle DOF areas, mainly falloff towards the distance, and favoring near objects - the same way our eyes work infact. A lot of landscape photographers seem to go the other way around and sacrifice near focus for infinity which can look awkward especially when we are talking about a camera like the D800 and huge prints. Actually, to take this further, the same approach as shooting on the 700 gives quite an unacceptably blurry picture, and all over. Obviously most are well aware of diffraction softening images; however I never anticipated that the extreme sensor resolution would make it "difficult" for me to get the front to back sharpness landscape photo. If I have an object up close in the frame I need to use f/16 etc but if I do everything just looks soft, the foreground rocks have a touch of softness to them that makes me almost dizzy! I realise you can focus stack etc, but try doing that with moving subjects, water, trees in the wind etc.

I have actually completely given up trying this landscape dof approach - because for me it seems to just give a photograph without depth cues, and worse still foreground detail that is meant to be in the dof (if you consult a dof chart you can check if your aperture and focal distance should include everything in your dof) when shooting at f/11-f/16 seems out of focus to my eyes and useless - soft everywhere. I realise there are some lenses - tilt and shift that can give you a front to back sharpness effect but even that is a compromise and focus can only really exist on a flat plane and what we call acceptable dof sharpness is left open to interpretation. I think the thing here is; that the D800 "reveals" the dof much more than the D700. The D700 I didn't notice the fall off in dof as much as I do now. So at f/16 on the D700 stuff that was in the dof looked sharp even at 100% - now it does not.

I am not shooting landscapes at f/5.6-f/8 maximum. I won't pretend I don't go outside of this bracket. I have shot lots of long exposures at f/11-f/22, just for the effect but I am aware of the compromises.

I guess in closing I realise that printed the D800 will still look better than the d700, even if I use softening diffraction apertures. So far I have mainly printed only portraiture from the D800. What are your thoughts? I'd really like to hear what some of the experienced landscapers on here are doing - I know you are out there.