Depth of field help

I was listening to a 7 photography questions podcast the other day -- number 13, with Jennifer Wu. She corrected a few of the misunderstandings I had regarding landscape photography. Specifically she addressed what aperture she uses to get a great landscape shot. I always assumed your lens never had a better excuse to stop all the way down and make the dust on your sensor nice and sharp than it does when you are shooting a landscape. Jennifer states that she typically uses f8, f11, and f16 because her Canon lenses produce sharper images that way even if the depth of field isn't as wide as f22.

That brought up another related topic... how to establish your hyperfocal distance. She recommends checking out the tools at DOF Master. They have programs to help you print charts for hyperfocal distances. I will certainly be trying out her suggestions, as I have found my landscapes are not quite as sharp as I'd like even when I'm using my tripod, mirror lock-up, and the whole works.

Whoops, I missed one

I just realized I forgot to mention Joe McNally's Blog. If you haven't ready The Moment it Clicks, you need to get a copy asap. If you don't feel like dropping any change on a new book, try your local library. Just get it. It is a quick read and contains some awesome photography.