Where to Focus and How to Take Sharp Landscape Photos

Learn how to take sharper landscape photos, and where to focus in landscape photography, with this tutorial with Ross Hoddinott.

Ross is a renowned landscape photographer, and an official Nikon Ambassador, and lives in the UK.

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[shivarekha]

Ross, that was absolutely useful. As an amateur photographer, my key takeaways from this video were #1 - knowing why you dont want to set the aperture to the highest possible such as f22 and #2 - to set the camera to liveview mode so that it locks up the mirror. Thank you for those invaluable tips, I am going to always keep them in the back of my mind and use them when I take landscape photos., and hope to see my photos turn out to be much more sharper.

[stevenbaglione]

If your camera has live view and shows the three composition grid lines, simply focus at the bottom third grid line, works like a charm.

[jbairdexp]

Some solid advice there from Ross. Didn't know about double distance focusing...a top tip!

[edgarmihyo]

Thanks for the mirror lockup tip to eliminate anti-shake and also for the double focus distance- great tutorial.

[karikaru]

Awesome video - landscapes are the photos I probably enjoy most looking at, but have always escaped me in how to make them more engaging. This video at least helped a lot with the technical aspects I've wrestled with.

[Yalelax]

Nicely done. Note that some modern mirror less lenses have no distance scale and therefore one must estimate the double distance point!


Again...thanks for taking the time to present this valuable information.

[stevetqp]

Very "sharp" presentation, Ross! As a landscape and product photographer, image sharpness is vital to my work, and I employ most of the techniques you mention here. One other small tip might be to always use a lens hood. I've found that it maximizes overall image quality by avoiding flare, when the sun is at or near the edge of the field of view. By reducing/eliminating flare, you're also assuring that your image has the most micro-contrast possible, which in itself adds to the perception of sharpness. If you don't have a lens hood, I simply use my hand to shield any unwanted light sources, being careful to not obstruct the lens, especially when using a very wide angle lens. One more tip...If you remove any UV filter prior to the exposure, you'll also ensure the maximum sharpness that the lens is capable of. I've always used "premium" filters to protect my lens' front element, however, in some laborious testing done a while ago, I found that even the "best" filter can have a sublte, minute effect on image sharpness, ehich may not be noticeable to many, especially when the image output is online only, however, when printing very large, it can have a slightly adverse effect on sharpness. Thanks again for sharing these excellent tips!

[Iseestupidpeopleeveryday]

The best thing I got from your video, all of it was very good, but the last 15 seconds really made my day. I never thought about using a loop to look at the back screen.

[scriptosaurusrex]

Ross has such a calm demeanor. He strikes me as the kind of guy who has literally never been angry in his life (or he gets mega ragey, either or).
Not that it is relevant to this enjoyable video, but I just noticed 😅

[CTBikesalot]

Best 8 Minutes on this subject. Thanks.

[aliquandoinsanireiucundume]

Thanks for the video. Was shooting landscapes today myself and thinking about these things. Your video really helped me to be one step further tomorrow.

[tonyturner]

Probably the best video I have ever watched on this important subject. So well presented. Thank you, Ross.

[bat]

Did not know about double distance focusing method. Thank you.

[barthezmg]

I was looking to buy a book on landscape photography. Your name came up. I searched YouTube and found your video. Very informative and precise. I bought your book Landscape photography workshop and subscribed to your channel. Thank you, looking forward to watching your videos and reading your book.

[kevincorbett]

Thank you. A wonderfully informative piece of work. I don’t think there was any brand new information however, to have each one given in context makes this the best in class. There’s not a wasted moment here. Good luck with your channel.

[gordonmacgregor]

What a breath of fresh air; a clear, informative, interesting and very professionally presented video. Ross, your presentation abilities shine in a Youtube world of mediocrity and irrelevance (how many footpaths must I watch photographers walk until I get to a point in the video where they say something interesting about taking a photograph?). I am currently having a re-think about focus in landscape photography because of inconsistent results and I found your clear and succinct summary of the options very helpful. The double-distance technique is new to me and I will give that a try. Many Thanks.

[rix]

Absolutely amazing video, and extremely helpful. Thank you

[brocktonbensch]

Shooting mirrorless or mirror up is helpful to remove shake for long exposures also!

[HR-wdcw]

On a mirrorless camera, I would recommend using EFCS (or electronic first-curtain shutter) for maximum sharpness. This is more important on the high-res cameras than it is on the lower resolution cameras but it can help. This can reduce shutter shock, and some DSLRs also have EFCS as well (like the Nikon D800 series). Also make sure you turn off image stabilization (if it's built into the lens) and IBIS if you have those features since you are on a tripod. IF it's windy, I've found to maybe leave those on just in case there is slight vibration from the wind, but most of the time, I turn those features off.

[mikepeberdy]

Hi Ross, I dont know if you remember me, but we had a day tohether in 2016 in Cornwall. I have been searching for videos by yourself and at last found this site! Its really good to see videos by you, it reminds me of that great day we had. Still using the technics you taught me! Thanks again for the help you gave me, its paying dividend re my photography. Mike