Originally Posted By kbennett
Do some testing before you shoot at f/38.

Adams was shooting with a view camera, with much longer lenses than your 18-55 zoom. (A 210mm lens is the "normal" focal length for a 4x5 camera.) The very small apertures were required for depth of field.

With a digital SLR camera, your "normal" focal length is about 28mm. To gain similar depth of field, F/8 or f/11 should be plenty. The major issue you face is Diffraction, which is caused by the very small aperture and which actually makes your photos less sharp. (The 4x5 camera at f/64 still has a very large physical aperture -- the actual size of the iris -- compared to your 18-55 at f/38.)

See this page this page for more information (and note that he was using a medium format camera, which will show less of this effect than your DSLR.) Also see this page for even more info.

Not what you wanted, I know. But realize that you can get that look using wider apertures because you are shooting with a smaller format camera. (And then realize that much of the Adams "look" comes from shooting large format film, developing using the Zone System, and hand printing everything.)


KB,
Thanks for the tip. After reading your reply, I was initially concerned that I was getting into more technical things than I had hoped for. But... after reading your provided links - I learned that it's not too too bad. I am aware of some of the differences between the 4x5 and the modern DSLR's, but I had not realized this was one of those differences. Great tip! Thank you.

I'll have to go shoot one scene and compare the pics back at home on the monitor.
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I always forget and make it more complicated than it needs to be...it's just walking.