[skipper954]

Timoleague Abbey, Ireland.


Photographically, I still worry about focus. This issue is beginning to drive me crazy.

This was taken at 1/50 @ f/10 with a 157mm(in 35mm terms) focal length. As I think about it now, I should have stopped down and shot a lot faster. My settings were just the opposite of what they should have been. May have been clearer then.

Still, I like the image.

skip

[Rob Barron]

Yes, the problem is probably not so much focusing as the fact you are trying to hand hold a long lens at a very slow speed. The usual guideline to follow is that the slowest shutter speed should be at least the inverse of the focal length. All that means is if you use a 500mm lens, the slowest shutter speed should be 1/500th second.

So, as you were using the equivalent of a 157mm, the minimum shutter speed should have been at least 1/157th second, so for practical terms using normal camera settings, at least 1/200th second or 1/250th second depending on what your camera allows.

I am not sure what your f10 is equal to, am I right in assuming you are not using an SLR? I say that because we would not normally use f10, the usual being f8 or f11. You could use f10 if you have the camera set to allow 1/3rd stop increments. Anyway, to make my calculations easier, I will use the next full stop down so let's say you had used f8 at that speed.

Using the normal reciprocity rule, if you went to f5.6 and took the shutter speed up to 1/100th second, that would be the same. Go to f4 and you'll get 1/200th second. All of the cross and gate or whatever it is are on the one flat plane so this would be fine. it would give you a lovely blurred background, even more so than what you achieved here. The cross would be lovely and sharp and would pop forward beautfiully.

Ok, that's enough playing with numbers. Just wanted to try and explain what you could have done so if you have another opportunity, you can try it again.

Cheers,
Rob

[Steve]

This might be helpful for you

The basics of getting sharp photos

[Markulous]

And of course the other advantage to using a faster shutter is that you'd get less DOF, so blurring that BG more - but I'd also put the cross nearly against the righthand edge, seeing as it goes out of shot on LHS

[Dave]

Others have covered off advice for sharpness etc. Only advice I can offer on top, is to try & get a good spread of tones for Mono's form the deepest black through to pure white. Easiest way to check, is looking at "levels" in Photo Shop where the histogram should spread to the far left & far right. If not, pull the sliders in from each end to the start of the graph

[skipper954]

My error....I usually correct white and black points.....guess I am getting old...forgot.

This is, of course, better, yes?

[Rob Barron]

I have made a slightly adapted adjustment, not sure if it will be better but I just went a touch further than you in adjusting the white and black point by also adjusting the grey point so that the darkest areas had a bit more detail in them. I do find that mono sometimes looks a touch different when in Photoshop to the way they appear on here so the difference may not be as noticeable, let's see...



Cheers,
Rob