F stop for landscapes w/ em-5

richarddd wrote:

It's possible to have lots of detail without front to back DOF. A problem with front to back sharpness is that it deprives us of some distance cues.

Distance clues include a less sharp, hazier, lower contrast appearance. Many landscape painters use this technique. The usual phrase is "aerial perspective" or "atmospheric perspective". As wikipedia puts it "Aerial perspective or atmospheric perspective refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as it is viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also decreases. The colours of the object also become less saturated and shift towards the background color, which is usually blue, but under some conditions may be some other color (for example, at sunrise or sunset distant colors may shift towards red)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_perspective

Perhaps I've seen to many photos which range from sharp flowers (or another "interesting" element) in the foreground to a sharp middle ground to sharp mountains in the background.