I really appreciate the clear explanation of critical concepts. The fact that I am also shooting with a Sony a7iii makes it particularly valuable to me. More than anything, I appreciate the pace at which the information is presented. It makes it easy for me to follow and even to take notes.
These are really difficult films to make and your delivery is very admirable. It was once pointed out to me many moons that depth of field isn't affected by focal length as long as the subject remains the same size in the frame with each focal length and the same aperture. I didn't believe it but when you pixel peep at the distant part of the wide shot, he has a point. But that's science and I don't pretend to or want to understand it!
I think its when you keep the same distance to the subject and the background. Depth of field affected by the magnification ratio. If you stay in the same spot whatever zoom you take will not change the depth of field. It nice "fun fact", however I think it does not have much practical use since there is not use comparing photos where subject is of different size, and when you start moving to have the subject fill the frame in the same way you than change the distance to the subject and therefore the magnification ratio...
Thanks again for another great review, I really like fact that you give us information from other TH-camrs as a reference. You’re one of the few that seem to do this out of passion more than profit.
Since I also photograph I understand your viewpoint and examples very well. The one thing is to make mistakes and practice more and more and the motor skills and practice together becomes second nature. Thanks for the video Mads Peterson, cheers.
Excellent Mads! You really explained focusing in simple, laymen terms. The in camera examples are what people need to see to better understand the technique. Seeing is believing. Well done!
I love your obvious ease at presenting the "how-to" of your photography. I have this camera and had no idea that the plus button put a crosshair into the photo! I can't wait to try out focusing using this new tool. I have always used it to blow up the image on the LCD screen. Beautiful photography and your two e-books are fantastic resources!
love the way you explain things and I can't believe this video doesn't have more likes than 4.5k because it's the best I've seen for showing how to do landscape focusing!
Thanks for all your vids they are extremely useful for someone like myself just starting out. I have the Sony a7iii and can’t seem to figure out how you are configuring your camera for flexible spot focus then zoom in and get the crosshairs to move to chosen focus area.
Excellent Video/tutorial without the need for technical mumbo jumbo .. straight to the point with good clear simplistic instruction..Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with us .........subscribed and thumbs up
the issue with focus stacking as your samples show is that the wind moves the brush and leaves and they are not in the same position in each frame so that you introduce motion blurr into your final stacked image
YOU GOT A NEW SUBSCRIBER Dear Mads, l am incredibly new in photography, very fresh and have been watching TH-cam photography and videography reviews, for the past six months to date. Your analysis and teaching are simply the best, and you are the first that l am subscribing with because l have learnt a lot and l trust your lesson and giveaways. Thank you!
Mads, at the end, I think you meant "the relative depth of field DECREASES" (not increases), when you get closer, or use long focal length, etc. Excellent video, though!
Another great video Mads. One aspect which is not often considered when discussing focussing is the size of the print you are producing and at what distance it is being viewed at. At a small scale or print viewed at a distance, the "acceptably sharp" depth of field will be much larger than for a large print view close up.
Very nice Boss , we are learning from you and other great photographers a lot , just i want to mention and confirm and add to what you said one thing , that every time we get closer to the ground it is more diffecult to use infinity rule or get everything sharp by using closed apreature so we should use focus stacking to guarantee that we have everything sharp, like for example shooting a frozen lake and we want to shoot the frozen surface closely and make it as a foreground
Excellent presentation. I came across your channel recently and am still catching up on some of the older posts, but I really appreciate your focus on elevating one's photography as an artistic pursuit. With this video I finally understand the "1/3" technique as approximating the hyperfocal distance. For a time I got caught up in trying to do the math with hyperfocal distance, but your explanation gives me the confidence to keep it simple and use focus on infinity, focus about 1/3 in, or focus stack.
Excellent video, as always. I focus stack when necessary with my D850. You inspire me to explore more unique landscape opportunities in my state so that my eye for compositions will improve. At that, you are a master. Thank you!
Thanks, good overview. If I'm looking to get a critical image right for focus then I will tend to consult PhotoPills app on my phone. Apart from lots of good astro guidance it has DOF data that is useful in more general photography too. I have also used the 1/3 into scene guide for the optimum focus point, but when you run the DOF calc for your lens focal length, distance, aperture etc it also shows how much distance behind and in front of your focus point should be in focus - often I see it's closer to 50:50 rather than 33:67. Separately, I find forest scenes like your example hard to shoot, when stopping down, as any wind induced subject movement blur can start to become a problem. So I agree focus stacking is probably the best tech approach. That said as long as you are getting the main foreground subject sharp then if some of background is a little soft it matters less IMO.
Hello Mads, how are you? I was wondering if you could tell me which month the leaves arrive in the Danish forest and whch month the leaves fall off in the autumn? I am interested , how many months the forests there are green ?.I am curious because Denmark is so far north and warm compared to the forests in New York.
Hey Mads, I would be really interested in a Video about Focus Stacking. Especially when it comes to the amount of photos and the distance between shots, while using camera automatics. Maybe it is even recommended to use manual pictures for that? Much confusion about that here. I am shure, I am not alone with that. Thanks an keep it up. Love your work!
Informative a concise explanations Mads. Use a similar method for focusing using the live screen to get an approximate distance from the middle of the camera to the point in the scene that is in the bottom of the live screen. Then double the distance for focusing and like yourself check afterwards and adjust if required. Glad to see you getting out and about locally, hopefully in the Uk we will have that opportunity soon
I’m heading out to practice shooting 1/3 into the scene and shooting at infinity. I think my Hangul is that I’m still learning my camera and really need to understand it’s different focus modes. Thank you for a great tutorial!
Thanks for the wonderful images from Denmark, and yet another video with easy understanding tips. And thanks for admitting to use Autosetting on the camera. Manual setting can be scaring for a lot of people who get told not to use automatic.
The biggest problem I have found when I use focus stacking for landscape are all those thing moved by the wind, or close elements covering more far elements. At last focus stacking, most of the time does not give a so good result, unless I spend hours and hours in post production.
Awesome video as always. Do you have the AF-ON button set as a custom button to allow you to zoom in when finding autofocus? I shoot the A7R, and when I set my C2 custom button to focus magnification, the camera does not allow me to use it saying “This operation or setting not available as follows”, “Focus Mode, Single-Shot AF”
It is by far the best explanation I have ever seen, I always wondered about focus stacking. Thanks to you Mads, It helped me a lot. I use Nikon D5200 (definitely I need to upgrade) but how do you recommend focusing if I dont have touch screen here?
Nice breakdown and simple. I still find forest scenes like that incredibly hard to get the appropriate focus on. The one thing that made a big difference for me was the realization that one of the other costs of shooting above F11 is that you get ALL of your lens spots and by F13/16 every microparticle on the lens, filter, or sensor is painfully visible and a nightmare to edit. Not a big deal on foliage, annoying on complex skies, but super challenging on sand.
Hæ Mads. Just found your channel and it answers all of my questions as well ás the the ones I didn’t yet know I had! Very much looking forward learning a lot from you. Best regards from Iceland
You should try back-button focusing in AF-Continuous mode - much simpler than a half-pressing the shutter release. Also, you should discuss the problem some lenses have with "focus-breathing" when focus stacking...
Love your videos. Hope you took some of that Wild Garlic home with you. I go out to pick that with a couple of friends when it's in season. Tasty stir fries :)
i only have an DX at the moment but i found in all my tests, my lenses are at their sharpest at between F4 and F6.5 although this shallow i always stack and i found over f11 with most of my lenses i see diffraction i am pretty new to all this though, great video thank you.
So, I shoot with a Sony A99 and this feature is only available for jpg and not RAW unfortunately. I use focus peaking a lot however and the color depends on the style of photo I'm taking. Wedding I shoot in yellow, landscape I use red. 💛
I sit watching your videos and everynow and again say ahh out loud..its like the lightbulb over my head turning on. My wife gets annoyed and asks what I'm watching. All I need to say now is Mads. She comes over, sits beside me and we watch your video together!
Excellent video, been struggling a bit with some unwanted foreground blur on shots where I'm very close to the ground and have a very deep scene but following this should solve them for me.
Nice video.. thank for great tips.. please give me and advice, I have a Canon M50, and I want to get a zoom lens, my budget is low, I was looking at two lenses 70-200 f4 or 55-250 f4, do you recommend these or any other could be good, I am just trying to do more landscaping photography.. thank you 🙏🏻
I really appreciate the clear explanation of critical concepts. The fact that I am also shooting with a Sony a7iii makes it particularly valuable to me. More than anything, I appreciate the pace at which the information is presented. It makes it easy for me to follow and even to take notes.
Mads, It's not flexible spot manual, it's medium - you can choose medium, small or large focusing spot.
Makes sense! I always wondered why they'd put "manual" there ;) Thanks!
These are really difficult films to make and your delivery is very admirable. It was once pointed out to me many moons that depth of field isn't affected by focal length as long as the subject remains the same size in the frame with each focal length and the same aperture. I didn't believe it but when you pixel peep at the distant part of the wide shot, he has a point. But that's science and I don't pretend to or want to understand it!
I think its when you keep the same distance to the subject and the background. Depth of field affected by the magnification ratio. If you stay in the same spot whatever zoom you take will not change the depth of field. It nice "fun fact", however I think it does not have much practical use since there is not use comparing photos where subject is of different size, and when you start moving to have the subject fill the frame in the same way you than change the distance to the subject and therefore the magnification ratio...
The M on the Flexible Spot stands for Medium. If you select the option to the left or the right you will se there is an S (small) and an L (large)
thank you, only here to correct that fcs
Great explanation. We don’t want technical but simple explanation. When we are in the field that’s how we photograph. Thanks for a great vlog.
You're very welcome and thanks a lot, Colin! :)
Thanks again for another great review, I really like fact that you give us information from other TH-camrs as a reference. You’re one of the few that seem to do this out of passion more than profit.
Since I also photograph I understand your viewpoint and examples very well. The one thing is to make mistakes and practice more and more and the motor skills and practice together becomes second nature. Thanks for the video Mads Peterson, cheers.
Excellent Mads! You really explained focusing in simple, laymen terms. The in camera examples are what people need to see to better understand the technique. Seeing is believing. Well done!
Thank you very much! :)
I love your obvious ease at presenting the "how-to" of your photography. I have this camera and had no idea that the plus button put a crosshair into the photo! I can't wait to try out focusing using this new tool. I have always used it to blow up the image on the LCD screen. Beautiful photography and your two e-books are fantastic resources!
Very hard core science- I know most of this stuff but it doesn't hurt to review and you are such a pleasure to listen to.
love the way you explain things and I can't believe this video doesn't have more likes than 4.5k because it's the best I've seen for showing how to do landscape focusing!
Mads, great video. You are one of the best landscape photography educator on the web, Thanks for your work.
You're very welcome and thank you very much for those kind words :)
Best video I have ever watched on where to focus. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so very much, John! That means a lot! :)
Thanks for all your vids they are extremely useful for someone like myself just starting out. I have the Sony a7iii and can’t seem to figure out how you are configuring your camera for flexible spot focus then zoom in and get the crosshairs to move to chosen focus area.
Excellent Video/tutorial without the need for technical mumbo jumbo .. straight to the point with good clear simplistic instruction..Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with us .........subscribed and thumbs up
Thanks Mads for this great tutorial on landscape focus! Good tips and advice that I will put in practice ASAP!
the issue with focus stacking as your samples show is that the wind moves the brush and leaves and they are not in the same position in each frame so that you introduce motion blurr into your final stacked image
Great video, a journey in learning that is constant. Never boring I think.
YOU GOT A NEW SUBSCRIBER
Dear Mads, l am incredibly new in photography, very fresh and have been watching TH-cam photography and videography reviews, for the past six months to date. Your analysis and teaching are simply the best, and you are the first that l am subscribing with because l have learnt a lot and l trust your lesson and giveaways. Thank you!
Always informative and always in beautiful settings to captivate your viewers.
This is the stuff that keeps me up at night.... Thank you for explaining it so well :)
Mads you are a fantastic educator, I love you videos that I have only just discovered.
Mads, at the end, I think you meant "the relative depth of field DECREASES" (not increases), when you get closer, or use long focal length, etc. Excellent video, though!
Easy to understand and to start using right away. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for re-enforcing the focus stacking concept for amature photographers!
This was a fantastic video. I figured things out that I hadn’t before. Thank you kindly.
You’re content is the best.
Thank you, so, so much! 🙏
Another great video Mads. One aspect which is not often considered when discussing focussing is the size of the print you are producing and at what distance it is being viewed at. At a small scale or print viewed at a distance, the "acceptably sharp"
depth of field will be much larger than for a large print view close up.
Yes, I know Nigel Danson just released a video close to that topic, you should check that one out :)
Great video. Well laid out and understanable. Thank you
Love seeing the Aarhus countryside. Such a beautiful land. So many memories of visits; someday I have to return.
Yes, there are some beautiful areas around here. They require another way of thinking than photographing in Iceland or other mountain areas.
Great description. Love it thoroughly
Great explanation. I have learned a lots of things about focus
Great video Mads, and a fantastic explanation of focusing.
Very nice Boss , we are learning from you and other great photographers a lot , just i want to mention and confirm and add to what you said one thing , that every time we get closer to the ground it is more diffecult to use infinity rule or get everything sharp by using closed apreature so we should use focus stacking to guarantee that we have everything sharp, like for example shooting a frozen lake and we want to shoot the frozen surface closely and make it as a foreground
Yes, I'd try to focus a bit into the scene first, but at one point even f/22 isn't enough to get the entire scene in focus.
Excellent presentation. I came across your channel recently and am still catching up on some of the older posts, but I really appreciate your focus on elevating one's photography as an artistic pursuit. With this video I finally understand the "1/3" technique as approximating the hyperfocal distance. For a time I got caught up in trying to do the math with hyperfocal distance, but your explanation gives me the confidence to keep it simple and use focus on infinity, focus about 1/3 in, or focus stack.
There are so many factors to consider if you want to make it into a science, so generally I just work pragmatic and see what works :)
Well done presentation! Most helpful!
Omg I never knew about the cross hair technique, thank you so much Mads!
Hey Mads! Can you share the settings for how you got the little cross hairs when you focus zoomed? I would be interested in setting that up.
Yes I would also like to know those settings, please....
You have to turn on AF in Focus Mag (still image) to "On" (Menu->Tab 1->Page 13) to get the cross hair. Note it only works in AF-S not AF-C.
Excellent video, as always. I focus stack when necessary with my D850. You inspire me to explore more unique landscape opportunities in my state so that my eye for compositions will improve. At that, you are a master. Thank you!
Thanks for making this nice tutorial!
Hi Mads. I enjoy your videos and have learned a great deal from you. Thank you 🙏
Thanks, good overview. If I'm looking to get a critical image right for focus then I will tend to consult PhotoPills app on my phone. Apart from lots of good astro guidance it has DOF data that is useful in more general photography too. I have also used the 1/3 into scene guide for the optimum focus point, but when you run the DOF calc for your lens focal length, distance, aperture etc it also shows how much distance behind and in front of your focus point should be in focus - often I see it's closer to 50:50 rather than 33:67.
Separately, I find forest scenes like your example hard to shoot, when stopping down, as any wind induced subject movement blur can start to become a problem. So I agree focus stacking is probably the best tech approach. That said as long as you are getting the main foreground subject sharp then if some of background is a little soft it matters less IMO.
Thank You, Excellent Video, Excellent Teachings.
Great video & comments/advice..thank you..
Mads, great guide. The tip around long focal lengths is one that often gets overlooked. Well done.
What I was traying to learn...Thanks..❤❤
Such lovely greens! Thanks for the great video about focus.
Very informative. Really enjoying all your videos.
This will help me a lot. Thank you
Great video explaining the focusing workflow. If this, then do this, if still not in focus then you need to do this. Perfect video. Thanks very much
You're very welcome! Thanks a lot :)
Hello Mads, how are you?
I was wondering if you could tell me which month the leaves arrive in the Danish forest and whch month the leaves fall off in the autumn? I am interested , how many months the forests there are green ?.I am curious because Denmark is so far north and warm compared to the forests in New York.
Very very good, thank you.. great tips.
Hey Mads, I would be really interested in a Video about Focus Stacking. Especially when it comes to the amount of photos and the distance between shots, while using camera automatics. Maybe it is even recommended to use manual pictures for that? Much confusion about that here. I am shure, I am not alone with that. Thanks an keep it up. Love your work!
Thanks Mads , i use same thing on the d850s , but my eyes arent the best so use an add on 7" screen to really set that focus
Excellent information.thank you.
I found the video easy to follow and enjoyable.Bless you. may everyone get something out of your teaching. Peace God Bless.
Great video, thank you! 👍
Informative a concise explanations Mads. Use a similar method for focusing using the live screen to get an approximate distance from the middle of the camera to the point in the scene that is in the bottom of the live screen. Then double the distance for focusing and like yourself check afterwards and adjust if required. Glad to see you getting out and about locally, hopefully in the Uk we will have that opportunity soon
I cross my fingers you guys will get out soon! In Denmark the officials are asking us to get out ;)
I’m heading out to practice shooting 1/3 into the scene and shooting at infinity. I think my Hangul is that I’m still learning my camera and really need to understand it’s different focus modes. Thank you for a great tutorial!
hello Mads fantastic tips to improve sharpness in landscape photography congratulations
I learned a lot from this video. Thx!
Awesome information Mads, thank you and stay safe
Thanks for the wonderful images from Denmark, and yet another video with easy understanding tips. And thanks for admitting to use Autosetting on the camera. Manual setting can be scaring for a lot of people who get told not to use automatic.
It's about using the tools you have :)
The biggest problem I have found when I use focus stacking for landscape are all those thing moved by the wind, or close elements covering more far elements. At last focus stacking, most of the time does not give a so good result, unless I spend hours and hours in post production.
Excellent tutorial Mads
Thanks Mads. Great tip about using the magnifier option mapped after the Flexible Spot. Have set up a quick key for that now on A7R3
You're welcome :)
Very helpful and inspiring, Mads. Thanks for sharing your focusing technique!
Mads. Thank you for another great video! I would like to see a video on how you set up your ARiii
That's a very specific video, I don't think I'll make one of those ;)
But the thinking is to just have easy access to the most used tools :)
Great content!! And helpful advices!
Awesome video as always. Do you have the AF-ON button set as a custom button to allow you to zoom in when finding autofocus? I shoot the A7R, and when I set my C2 custom button to focus magnification, the camera does not allow me to use it saying “This operation or setting not available as follows”, “Focus Mode, Single-Shot AF”
Stunning camera you have, great video by the way.
Great content,Thank you very much.
Learnt a lot thank you
Good down to earth info , great work
Excellent tips Mads - all very useful! All the best!
Nice! If you haven't tried back button focus, give it a try. I think you will like it 🙂
Awesome video! Thank you 🤝
Great tutorial
Super helpful and easy watching : )
great content.. Affinity photo also does focus stacking..
Thanks. Plenty free hyperfocal apps which may be useful. Also thanks to your viewers for clearing up a few Sony operating tips..
It is by far the best explanation I have ever seen, I always wondered about focus stacking. Thanks to you Mads, It helped me a lot. I use Nikon D5200 (definitely I need to upgrade) but how do you recommend focusing if I dont have touch screen here?
Nice breakdown and simple. I still find forest scenes like that incredibly hard to get the appropriate focus on.
The one thing that made a big difference for me was the realization that one of the other costs of shooting above F11 is that you get ALL of your lens spots and by F13/16 every microparticle on the lens, filter, or sensor is painfully visible and a nightmare to edit. Not a big deal on foliage, annoying on complex skies, but super challenging on sand.
Yes, sand can be really hard with spots on! Keep an eye on the cleaning all the time :)
Great information Mats. Thank you!
Hæ Mads.
Just found your channel and it answers all of my questions as well ás the the ones I didn’t yet know I had!
Very much looking forward learning a lot from you.
Best regards from Iceland
can you tell me how to set the enlarge erea using the AF-ON button? it dont work on my A7Riii.... thanks Mads
You set it up somewhere in the menus where you decide what buttons do what :)
You should try back-button focusing in AF-Continuous mode - much simpler than a half-pressing the shutter release. Also, you should discuss the problem some lenses have with "focus-breathing" when focus stacking...
I mention focus breathing in other videos and I don't follow why AF-continuous mode should be better?
Being home for too long and not being able to take landscape photos have driven me MAD! When will this corona be over? I feel like I’ll be insane soon
Very nice, thank you.
Love your videos. Hope you took some of that Wild Garlic home with you. I go out to pick that with a couple of friends when it's in season. Tasty stir fries :)
i only have an DX at the moment but i found in all my tests, my lenses are at their sharpest at
between F4 and F6.5 although this shallow i always stack and i found over f11 with most of
my lenses i see diffraction i am pretty new to all this though, great video thank you.
Yes, I think it's a rule of thumb that the smaller the sensor the "sharpest part of the lens" goes towards the more open aperture values :)
so when my D850 arrives i have to do all those tests again ? .. :(
Fabulous, simple and brilliant👏👏👏
So, I shoot with a Sony A99 and this feature is only available for jpg and not RAW unfortunately. I use focus peaking a lot however and the color depends on the style of photo I'm taking. Wedding I shoot in yellow, landscape I use red. 💛
Thank you for this
I sit watching your videos and everynow and again say ahh out loud..its like the lightbulb over my head turning on. My wife gets annoyed and asks what I'm watching. All I need to say now is Mads. She comes over, sits beside me and we watch your video together!
Haha thanks! Happy she enjoys the videos too :)
Excellent video, been struggling a bit with some unwanted foreground blur on shots where I'm very close to the ground and have a very deep scene but following this should solve them for me.
I hope it'll work out! :)
Thank you Mads. A tasteful vídeo. 🙏
Great explanation, thank you, you helped me a lot!! :)
Thank you for such a clear vlog and explanation, Mads. Excellent and really helpful.
Nice video.. thank for great tips.. please give me and advice, I have a Canon M50, and I want to get a zoom lens, my budget is low, I was looking at two lenses 70-200 f4 or 55-250 f4, do you recommend these or any other could be good, I am just trying to do more landscaping photography.. thank you 🙏🏻
I'm not sure what lens would be best to that camera as I don't have any experience with it.
Mads Peter Iversen okay... thank you for replying..