Angry Water…… shooting dilemma 📷

[Larry S.]

We are in Kill Devil Hills this week on the Outer Banks. The weather is tricky at this time of year. Dramatic changes are expected. All the better for photography, right?
The sky got dark, wind came up so it looked like an opportunity to grab a few contrasty images of the waves breaking. But then a flock of small shorebirds (sanderlings) drop ”in-frame” creating a priority dilemma. To capture a series of waves I needed camera height, which I did with a monopole. To get best images of the birds I probably needed to be down in the sand. I decided to feature the waves and let the birds be part of the scene rather than the primary subject. The wave action turned out to be less than hoped for but the resulting few images are okay.
(sneaky wife takes iPhone picture of me!)

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[JAJohnson]

Nice photos! I’m planning a trip to the Outer Banks after Thanksgiving. Love moody beach scenes and shorebirds pecking at the sand looking for a meal.

 

[Larry S.]

Nice photos! I’m planning a trip to the Outer Banks after Thanksgiving. Love moody beach scenes and shorebirds pecking at the sand looking for a meal.

Thanks “J”… getting ready to post another from Outer Banks that I can’t wrap my head around. Weather not so good now. Very windy and cold. Bring warm clothes and don’t forget (like I did!..) to bring your CPL filter..(why on Earth would I need a 52mm CPL?)..… left it home…duh.

 

[JAJohnson]

Thanks “J”… getting ready to post another from Outer Banks that I can’t wrap my head around. Weather not so good now. Very windy and cold. Bring warm clothes and don’t forget (like I did!..) to bring your CPL filter..(why on Earth would I need a 52mm CPL?)..… left it home…duh.

Thanks for the reminder!

 

[Callie]

Great environment for flying critters, Larry.

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

Did you go to be a stand in on the Netflix drama of the treasure hunters? Seems reflective of the climate these days.

 

[Larry S.]

Did you go to be a stand in on the Netflix drama of the treasure hunters? Seems reflective of the climate these days.

Dang Michael! Where’s my contract?

 

[Larry S.]

Turnabout is fair play… I took a series of sneaky Meg throwing crumbs to gulls…. Something surprising occurred in these images however… I shot this series with the 58mm f/1.2 NOCT on the D850 @ f/8 +1/1000 sec. Manual focus and no VRS or IBIS with this setup.. I focused on her and just started reeling off shots as she fed the birds. When I put the card in the iPad not only was she and the gulls in sharp focus but the waves on the shore 100+ yards away were also sharp. ?
I would not have thought f/8 in a standard length prime would produce this depth of field. Does this happen with lenses that have an aspherical element? This is a reduced resolution JPEG for Forum standards and much softer than original file….

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[Larry S.]

Here are 2 crops from previous image that show resolution

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[JAJohnson]

Turnabout is fair play… I took a series of sneaky Meg throwing crumbs to gulls…. Something surprising occurred in these images however… I shot this series with the 58mm f/1.2 NOCT on the D850 @ f/8 +1/1000 sec. Manual focus and no VRS or IBIS with this setup.. I focused on her and just started reeling off shots as she fed the birds. When I put the card in the iPad not only was she and the gulls in sharp focus but the waves on the shore 100+ yards away were also sharp. ?
I would not have thought f/8 in a standard length prime would produce this depth of field. Does this happen with lenses that have an aspherical element? This is a reduced resolution JPEG for Forum standards and much softer than original file….

This situation might be one in which your wife is at (or near) the hyperlocal distance from your camera, at which objects from half the hyperlocal distance to far beyond appear "acceptably sharp." Film photographers shooting landscapes used this approach to capture sharp photos. Now landscape photographers use focus stacking as long as there's nothing moving quickly in the frame. From your uncropped photo my guess is she was 12 to 15 yards from you.

Hyperfocal Distance Explained

In this article, I will explain hyperfocal distance and give several methods to get the sharpest possible photographs with maximum depth of field.

photographylife.com

https://www.photopills.com/calculators/hyperfocal-table

 

[Larry S.]

This situation might be one in which your wife is at (or near) the hyperlocal distance from your camera, at which objects from half the hyperlocal distance to far beyond appear "acceptably sharp." Film photographers shooting landscapes used this approach to capture sharp photos. Now landscape photographers use focus stacking as long as there's nothing moving quickly in the frame. From your uncropped photo my guess is she was 12 to 15 yards from you.

Hyperfocal Distance Explained

In this article, I will explain hyperfocal distance and give several methods to get the sharpest possible photographs with maximum depth of field.

photographylife.com

https://www.photopills.com/calculators/hyperfocal-table

Hey “J”, Great article and certainly explains what happened in this picture. Never heard the term hyperfocal, I’ve just done it that way when doing landscapes and didn’t know there was technical nuances involved. But, you’re pretty close on the distance estimate. She was between 15-20 yds. Had she been 50ish I would have never asked the question. At f/8 I expected the birds to sharp but not the shoreline 100+ yards away. Saved the article….interesting

 

[JAJohnson]

Hey “J”, Great article and certainly explains what happened in this picture. Never heard the term hyperfocal, I’ve just done it that way when doing landscapes and didn’t know there was technical nuances involved. But, you’re pretty close on the distance estimate. She was between 15-20 yds. Had she been 50ish I would have never asked the question. At f/8 I expected the birds to sharp but not the shoreline 100+ yards away. Saved the article….interesting

I'm glad the information was helpful!