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A complicated landscape question

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MICHAEL_61

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I would like to describe my problem in the hope that somebody went through this before me and would be able to suggest a solution. How do you do a wideangle land/cityscape WITH SHARP DETAIL CLOSE TO THE LENS (sorry, not shouting, just emphasizing) - with good sharpness and detail all over?
1) Good quality wideangle in the range of 20mm is not wide enough;
2) Fisheye is not orthogonal;

3) Extreme wideangle produces disgusting out-of-focus corners in this situation, at any aperture:

http://lordofthelens.co.nz/JAlbum/Landscape/slides/LIDSKI_LANDSCAPE%20 (75).html

4) Panorama stitching - is it the ONLY solution? Couldn't very well work for the sample posted above, now, could it?

Have you got an answer?

http://lordofthelens.co.nz/
 
... as it will give you the best of all worlds, including more pixels to work with. If your (say) 50mm is your best lens, you'll need to take several shots, but it ain't no big deal. (I tend to rotate the camera to portrait position; four or five somewhat overlapping shots will get you very, very wide.)

--



http://www.ahomls.com/photo.htm
http://www.phillipsphotographer.com
Voted Best of the City 2004 by Cincinnati Magazine
I don't believe in fate, but I do believe in f/8!

'The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it.', H. L. Mencken
 
a good copy of the 16-35 2.8 mk2 or sigma 12-24 might do the job on either a full frame or crop frame camera.
--
max
 
1. use any wide angle lens you have
2. shoot always at f13-f16
3. use a foreground for a focus point, let it be about 3 meters away from you

Here is a few very very sharp detailed pictures taken with 150$ sigma







--
Renat
http://www.renat.ca
 
If you are going to go wide angle, as in a wide angle perspective, whether you use stitching or a very wide angle lens, you WILL have distortion unless the viewer is seeing the print with the same perspective (read, way too close for comfort). So you have to make a decision which sort of distortion you prefer.

The problem is that you're trying to map something that's essentially spherical onto a flat surface. Just as in cartography, you must choose you evil.

Sticking with the cartographic example, there is an alternative, even if only theoretical: print to the inside of a sphere. The viewer then views the printout from the center of the sphere distortionlessly.
--
http://www.pbase.com/victorengel/

 
MICHAEL_61 said:
I would like to describe my problem in the hope that somebody went
through this before me and would be able to suggest a solution. How
do you do a wideangle land/cityscape WITH SHARP DETAIL CLOSE TO THE
LENS (sorry, not shouting, just emphasizing) - with good sharpness
and detail all over?
1) Good quality wideangle in the range of 20mm is not wide enough;
2) Fisheye is not orthogonal;
3) Extreme wideangle produces disgusting out-of-focus corners in this
situation, at any aperture:

http://lordofthelens.co.nz/JAlbum/Landscape/slides/LIDSKI_LANDSCAPE%20 (75).html

4) Panorama stitching - is it the ONLY solution? Couldn't very well
work for the sample posted above, now, could it?

Have you got an answer?

http://lordofthelens.co.nz/
Click to expand...
I've not tried either software, but you might take a look at Helicon Focus or CombineZM for image stacking. I believe these software are used mostly for macro photography, but you should be able to use them with landscape, too.

http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfocus.html
http://hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZM/News.htm

This photographer uses CombineZM for his macro photography with great success.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://lordv.smugmug.com/

--
http://www.threepalmsphoto.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/threepalmsphoto/
 
Not exactly the same type of shot, but the lower left was pretty darn close to the camera. This was shot on a 5D with a 16-35 mk II lens....on a tripod at f11. I used hyperfocal focusing to maximize DOF. I might have some more examples if I dig around a little.

 
There are two options you can consider.

One, a T/S lens that will allow you to control the object focal plane without resorting to small apertures.

Second, something like I've done below where the point of focus is somewhat close to the camera and I've stopped down to f/22 to balance focus between the foreground and background.



Regards,

Joe Kurkjian, Pbase Supporter



SEARCHING FOR A BETTER SELF PORTRAIT
 
There may be situations where only a tilt/shift lens can help you (although these do have their limitations).

FWIW, I find my 12-24 needs to be kept scrupulously clean not to show effects like the ones you're getting for close objects.
 
Being there.

Waiting for the light/moment.

Two, no, three more things. . .

Good gloves. ;)

Beautiful images for examples. . . just beautiful.

--
...Bob, NYC

Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/btullis
 
Victor Engel said:
If you are going to go wide angle, as in a wide angle perspective,
whether you use stitching or a very wide angle lens, you WILL have
distortion
Click to expand...
  • I don't mind distortion as such, just want the straight lines to remain straight. I DO mind horrible ugly disgusting blurry streaking that ALL extreme wideangle lenses seem to produce in the abovementioned situation.
http://lordofthelens.co.nz/
 
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