I am trying to take a shot of an old castle ruin (in the background) through a window (or better described as an opening with stone surround) of another castle (foreground) The castles are approx 1/4 mile apart. I either get the background castle or the stonework in the window of the foreground castle in focus but never both, which I would like to achieve. How can this be done. I would appreciate help on this. I upgraded to a Canon 40D + 17-85mm lens recently. Regards, Misty.
Focus Advice Please
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I'd try and use one of your focussing points to lock focus midway between the first and second castle, if it was unable to lock focus, manually focus.
Then shoot at f16/f18/f22-you may need to use a tripod as your shutter speed may be too slow to hand hold.
Then shoot at f16/f18/f22-you may need to use a tripod as your shutter speed may be too slow to hand hold.
Garry Edwards
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Bad answer because the right approach is always to get the shot right in the camera if possible but...
Using a very small aperture is a poor choice because
a. You can't get both a very close foreground and a very distant background sharp at the same time, the best you can hope for is to get both only a bit unsharp
b. Using a small aperture will cause diffraction limitation.
So, with the camera on a tripod, the best answer is to take 2 shots, one focussed on the foreground and one one the background, and merge them in PS
Using a very small aperture is a poor choice because
a. You can't get both a very close foreground and a very distant background sharp at the same time, the best you can hope for is to get both only a bit unsharp
b. Using a small aperture will cause diffraction limitation.
So, with the camera on a tripod, the best answer is to take 2 shots, one focussed on the foreground and one one the background, and merge them in PS
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1/4 mile is pretty much infinity so if you were to find the hyperfocal distance for the zoom setting you want to use then you should position yourself at half that distance from the window in the castle you're in.
http://www.dofmaster.com/hyperfocal.html
Bob
http://www.dofmaster.com/hyperfocal.html
Bob
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pxl8
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I think it all depends on how much of the sides from the opening are wanted in the foreground. Is is shot of the wall with an opening showing the other castle in the distance or a just the edges of the opening framing a larger view of the distant scene?
If it's the former then stepping back to use the hyperfocal might not be possible for all manner of reasons, falling off the edge of the walkway is the obvious one. If it's the latter hyperfocal probably won't cover it anyway without stopping way past the diffraction limit of the crop sensor.
No doubt it could be done in camera but what's important here? Getting the shot or how you got it?
If it's the former then stepping back to use the hyperfocal might not be possible for all manner of reasons, falling off the edge of the walkway is the obvious one. If it's the latter hyperfocal probably won't cover it anyway without stopping way past the diffraction limit of the crop sensor.
No doubt it could be done in camera but what's important here? Getting the shot or how you got it?
subseasniper
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As well as focus issues there may be exposure problems (unless you want to have the stone surround in silhouette). The best solution for focus and or/exposure difficulties could be to lock your camera on a tripod, frame as desired and grab at two exposures, one focussing on the stone surround, the other on the distant castle. Since you want the stone surround in focus I am guessing you want it to be more than a silhouette so exposing for the faraway castle and focussing on that then taking another shot of the stone surround but focussing on that and dropping your shutter speed to get a correct exposure of that. Then combine in PS as suggested, I normally use two layers and the eraser tool with a soft brush to gently combine the images.
Thanks all for your very informative replies. I should have posted this pic. with my query as it gives a view of both castles ( the one on the left is a look out tower, really) where there is a similar window (approx 4ft X 2ft) to the one visible at the other side of the tower facing the castle. The inside of the tower is approx 20ft in diamater so I have plenty of room to move the camera around. As suggested I will take 2 shots, one focused on the window & the other on the castle in the background & merge both in photoshop. I will also play around with DOF. There is potential for a lovely shot here so I will try my best & if I am happy with it I will post for c&c. Thanks again, Regards, Misty.
