Selective Focus in the Landscape

[John Berry ( Roadkill )]

I find selective focus very useful to get a three dimensional effect on a two dimensional medium. Very useful in directing the viewer thru the print.

[Ed Richards]

> I'm just so amazed that there is so much thought about what's right and wrong in photography.

I do not see this as right and wrong, just seeing what other folks have done for ideas.

[paulr]

"If you think that there is a classic definition of landscape, and I would disagree with you if you do ... "

well, there is .... actually there are a few. but classic definitions aren't the same as rules you have to follow.

[Jim collum]

Right now i'm just playing around with it to see what it's capbable of. The Cooke Portrait can be used to manipulate selective focus. I've added some example shots of different f stops at here . These aren't meant as works of art... just samples of images from the lens

jim

[CXC]

Hard to believe it, but it seems I'm the only sharp focus guy in this group.

Of course there is no universal right and wrong, but there is personal right and wrong. For me, any partially out of focus photo looks like either: 1) a mistake; 2) technical limitation; or, 3) cheesy pictorialism. If it isn't part of the subject, I crop or leave it out. Motion blurs can be okay, as can complete images out of focus.

Obviously this is strictly esthetics, and to each his own.

To be a landscape, image must include the horizon, focus is not relevant.

[tim atherton]

"To be a landscape, image must include the horizon, focus is not relevant."

Your kidding right?

[Walt Calahan]

Selective focus is a tool that is used by some, and not by others. It's up to each photographer to choose the appropriate tools to explore her or his vision.

When I'm out with my Leica rangefinders, I love shooting at f/1.4 using my 75 mm lens to explore the world of very selective focus.

Now I learn all the photographs I've made without a horizon aren't landscape photography. They are in focus. :-(

Honestly, I didn't get that memo!

Grin.

[tim atherton]

well - teechnically a landscape should only be of a patch or section of cultivated land - if you are a pedant that is... :-)

[Eirik Holmøyvik]

Go ahead, there are no rules. If it works for you, then there is no reason not to use selective focus. A photograph is a visual, not a technical thing.

[Brian Ellis]

Deliberately throwing the background (or, less frequently, the foreground) out of focus is a common technique with other formats. But most LF photographers tend to value detail and sharpness or we wouldn't be using the cameras we use so we tend to select subjects that will lend themselves to being sharp from front to back. However, if the photograph calls for it we certainly should deviate from that. I attended a workshop by Tillman Crane a few years ago that was devoted to exactly this topic - using a view camera in non-traditional view camera ways.