On Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:07:05 -0700, "RG" wrote:

What I was looking for in most of these was depth of field, thus the high
ISO and small aperture.
And, I was wanting to see what effect the higher ISO had on the pictures,
but I didn't want to take
it all the way to the max of 1600.


Your thinking is correct in that the higher ISO will afford a smaller
aperture and therefore a greater depth of field. A deep depth of field is
important in landscapes such as these only when you have a subject in the
very near foreground that you want to be in focus along with the
intermediate and background subjects. In most of these photos, there isn't a
close foreground subject, so a deep depth of field isn't really required.
In the photos where the grasses are in the foreground, perhaps a bit more
depth of field is required, but not all that much. The penalty of an
unnecessarily small aperture is lens diffraction, which can reduce
sharpness.

Since I shoot primarily landscapes, I'm very much attuned to the issue of
depth of field. In fact, it is because of this that I almost always shoot
in aperture priority mode. I let the depth of field requirements of the
scene dictate the aperture setting I use and will let the shutter speed and
ISO remain variable. My default aperture is f8, because it usually offers
enough depth of field and is typically the sweet spot of sharpness in most
lenses. If I require more depth of field I will either stop the lens down
further or use a wider focal length. If I am trying to narrow the depth of
field, I'll do the opposite. In any case, I'll typically set the focus at a
hyperfocal distance (somewhere between the foreground and background of the
scene. Also, I always shoot a scene with several bracketed exposures, often
using different aperture settings and then sort it all out at home using a
large monitor.

Perhaps on your next trip out west we can hook up for a photo shoot.

Russ


Good tips. I like the bracketed exposure idea. Never done it. A photo shoot out there would be a
blast. I'm thinking of going on one, even if I have to fly there and back. Shoot, it might make a
nice motorcycle trip.

Good tips. I like the bracketed exposure idea. Never done it. A photo
shoot out there would be a
blast. I'm thinking of going on one, even if I have to fly there and back.
Shoot, it might make a
nice motorcycle trip.

Your D200 has an auto-bracketing feature that makes bracketing unbelievably
easy. You tell it how many exposures you would like to take (3,5,7 or 9),
how far apart the exposures should be (.3, .7 or a full stop), then hold
down the shutter. The camera will fire the shutter the requested number of
times and then stop. You don't even have to count. I always bracket at
least three exposures, one stop apart, more exposures if the dynamic range
of the scene is high. I do this for two reasons. First, as good as the
meters are in modern cameras, they don't always get it right. Having three
or more exposures a stop apart lets me choose which exposure is the best to
use in post production. Second, if a single exposure won't yield good
results due to high dynamic range, having a bracketed set of exposures
allows me to merge then in an HDR program, often time producing a result
that is superior to what could be accomplished using s single exposure.
This approach would have been prohibitively expensive using film, but pixels
as free. The only cost is the extra time required to sort through all the
exposures in post production. I'd rather sort these out at the comfort of
my desk at home using a large monitor than to try and determine optimal
exposure using a LCD screen on the camera in bright sunlight.

Russ

On Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:08:30 -0500, John H
wrote:

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...l/MNV_0054.jpg

===

Nice picture of a ball eating lake. :-)

On Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:10:36 -0500, Wayne.B wrote:

On Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:08:30 -0500, John H
wrote:

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...l/MNV_0054.jpg

===

Nice picture of a ball eating lake. :-)

I've put my share in there, that's for damn sure. I've also bounced them off the ice up onto the
green.

On Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:22:52 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:08:30 -0500, John H
wrote:

...besides the exercise and learning to cope with frustration.

These are from my local course, about a mile away.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...MNV_0059-1.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...l/MNV_0056.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...l/MNV_0054.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...l/MNV_0051.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...l/MNV_0051.jpg

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l2...l/MNV_0029.jpg

No wading birds? No alligators? What fun is that? ;-)

It does look like a pretty walk in the park.

I am going to be playing somewhere in TamBay area next week. It will
probably be in Odessa where my alligator picture came from.

We don't have alligators, but we have a beaver, or two or three, who has decided to clear out some
of the trees on number 10. I should have gotten a couple pictures of the damage they've caused. I've
offered to sit out there with a shotgun, but the management doesn't like the idea.

Can't imagine why. I suppose beavers are 'endangered', but oaks don't count.