Need help. Zf

[jthomas39]

Can you show another image, not the flowers, with the blurry spot?

Or:

use manual focus. Take a shot, then move away slightly, and take another. This will make the confusing 3D arrangement of the flowers more understandable, with different ones in sharp focus.

 

[sirhawkeye64]

OK back home in front of the computer. I converted an NEF to a tiff and cropped it. Then saved as a jpeg for DPreview. NO edits just the crop.

I marked 3 areas.

Blue circle is behind red circle. Green circle is in front of the red circle. You can see the red circle is clearly out of focus.

It's a head scratcher.

Could you show us where you focused?

Not to be rude, but what you pointed out here, we somewhat figured was the case. What we need is the focus point and perhaps a bit more about the conditions (how windy was it would you say?) HOw far were you again from the focus point area?

One possibility here is the could may suffer from some field curvature in spots (but we'd probably need to see a full image. Also, another possibility is that the red area was more susceptible to movement (most likely case) than the areas which are behind it and may be more shielded from the wind than the area in the red circle (which appears to be closest to the camera). I don't know the distance relationship between the red, blue, and green circle but it's either just movement closer to the camera, which is more pronounced (and it only takes a little in some cases) or its a lens issue. I doubt it's the camera itself.

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PLEASE NOTE: I usually unsubscribe from forums and comments after a period of time, so if I do not respond, that is likely the reason. Feel free to PM me if you have a questions or need clarification about a comment I made.

 

[brucet]

Folks here's the full image. NEF converted to a jpeg. No edits. I've circled, in blue, two areas that have issues.







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I thought I made a mistake once. But I was wrong!

500px

500px.com

https://www.brucetreloar.blogspot.com.au

 

[HyperCypher]

Set your camera up on a tripod ... same shot ... use single point AF to focus where ever you choose ... then zoom to 100% and slowly rack focus manually with the control ring and I think you'll observe this is just a simple depth of field "problem" mischaracterized as a flaw... as you'll observe the focus plane move through the foliage ... I think your identifications of depth position are likely in error.

 

[brucet]

Set your camera up on a tripod ... same shot ... use single point AF to focus where ever you choose ... then zoom to 100% and slowly rack focus manually with the control ring and I think you'll observe this is just a simple depth of field "problem" mischaracterized as a flaw... as you'll observe the focus plane move through the foliage ... I think your identifications of depth position are likely in error.

Thanks. But there's a but. But I have similar results at f16. I've tried everything from f4 to f22. From close up to 8-10ft away. 24mm to 7mm. All images have a similar result. My guess is that it's the camera struggling with the subject matter.

I would try your suggestions but it's raining outside. Lots of rain. So I'll see if I can get some more shots.

 

[HyperCypher]

You could even run a video and be able to review the focus plane sweep on a much larger screen. I think you are going to find that all is well and this is just typical shallow full frame behavior, even at f16.0.

In this age of the cell phone camera I think the full frame sensor aesthetic is under pressure as well. One of the things cell phones do really well is get all of something in nearly critical focus.

Did you know one of the photo greats of our age, Sebastio Salgado, regards shallow depth of field as an aesthetic error? He tries to shoot at f11.0. With that in mind it might make more sense for you to shoot that tree with your iPhone or Samsung !

https://photographylife.com/a-brief...h the closed,blur, it sees everything focused.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure...2013-book-Genesis-Image-source_fig4_352305073

 

[CliveTJ]

You could even run a video and be able to review the focus plane sweep on a much larger screen. I think you are going to find that all is well and this is just typical shallow full frame behavior, even at f16.0.

In this age of the cell phone camera I think the full frame sensor aesthetic is under pressure as well. One of the things cell phones do really well is get all of something in nearly critical focus.

Did you know one of the photo greats of our age, Sebastio Salgado, regards shallow depth of field as an aesthetic error? He tries to shoot at f11.0. With that in mind it might make more sense for you to shoot that tree with your iPhone or Samsung !

https://photographylife.com/a-brief...h the closed,blur, it sees everything focused.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure...2013-book-Genesis-Image-source_fig4_352305073

I see the Salgado quote includes a part where he says the eye does not see blur in real life….yet he shoots in B&W but our eyes see colour. There’s a contradiction in there.

 

[sirhawkeye64]

Set your camera up on a tripod ... same shot ... use single point AF to focus where ever you choose ... then zoom to 100% and slowly rack focus manually with the control ring and I think you'll observe this is just a simple depth of field "problem" mischaracterized as a flaw... as you'll observe the focus plane move through the foliage ... I think your identifications of depth position are likely in error.

Thanks. But there's a but. But I have similar results at f16. I've tried everything from f4 to f22. From close up to 8-10ft away. 24mm to 7mm. All images have a similar result. My guess is that it's the camera struggling with the subject matter.

I would try your suggestions but it's raining outside. Lots of rain. So I'll see if I can get some more shots.

So I'm wondering, based on your statement about it happening at f/16 as well...,is it possible that from the camera's perspective, this is just an illusion that appears like blur due to the number of overlapping flowers in that particular area that it is coming across as blur. It's possible slight blur is happening, but unless it's REALLY windy I don't see that happening at 1/1000s. Plus if you look around the "blurred" area within the blue circle, other elements look decently/acceptably sharp, like the green leaf, and some of the flowers to the left (within the circle), and below the grouping of flowers.

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PLEASE NOTE: I usually unsubscribe from forums and comments after a period of time, so if I do not respond, that is likely the reason. Feel free to PM me if you have a questions or need clarification about a comment I made.

 

[jthomas39]

Without some new example images, I'll be unsubscribing from this thread. We want to help solve this interesting problem, but can't get any new information.

I asked for manual focus of this same flower cluster, but move the focus away from the camera in a series of images. That should help resolve which parts are on the same plane of focus. It's unclear to me if some of the blurred flowers are forward, back behind, or if there really is a camera failure here.

 

[brucet]

Folks I've given up. I've spent too long trying to figure it out.

Today i spent almost an hour trying. Camera on a tripod. All the f stops. Various focal lengths. Played with dof. All the same restuls. I then photographed several other groups of blooms in my garden. All hand held. All "almost" perfect.

so? So my conclusion is that it has something to do with the mass of yellow details confusing something.

before someone jumps in and calls my an idiot. Or worse! For many years I photographed flowers for one of the world's most renoun catalogues. So I do, I think, know what to do. !!!

Thanks for all the feedback but time to move on.

 

[HyperCypher]

I just think it's an interesting statement on his part and judging from the body of his work, worth pondering.

Here at DPReview the general discourse includes fixations on shallow DOF, but hyper sharpness at the focal plane (all the way into the image corners), omniscient subject recognition, and auto focus, and 120 frames per second with pre-capture ...

Meanwhile one of the greats of our age produced an astonishing work, "Genesis" with an 18 mpx sensor shooting at f 11-16 with zoom lenses.

apologies for being a little off topic

 

[CliveTJ]

You’re absolutely right to consider how we approach taking pictures. It’s a massive topic of its own. Certainly I’m not “run & (machine) gun” person which is why I have a Zf with an MF Voigtlander. I do on occasion like shallow DoF and B&W…anyway off topic as you say.

 

[monte12345]

The contrast in those flowers is very low and I suspect the camera just got the focus wrong. As a result those flowers are a bit out of focus. It's one of the reasons why I have the AF button on my Z7 II set to provide a 1 button pixel peep on/off. BTW the other reason is I have a large array of AF Nikkors and manual focus Nikkor lenses that have to be focused manually on the Z series cameras.