thank you all for your comments, excuse my late response I have been on the road. Not sure if I am any in wiser - in fact. But I do now understand that f22 is not a mandatory go to f stop to get the best out of a lens So with any given lens how do you determine the best f stop or max stop before diffraction has a negative impact on the image?
I use a DOF ap on my phone & do the calculations of what I need in sharp focus to help determine the "best" aperture.Originally Posted by 12pmc
There is no better short answer than "it depends."
What it depends on is the image quality you want in the final print and on how much you will enlarge the negative to make the final print. It also depends on what is important in the image.
One point that people here -- me included -- rarely mention is that when it comes to pleasing viewers sharpness isn't all that important. The last time I saw Mr. Galli I showed him a shot I'd taken of Mono Lake, with a seagull. I took it with a 6x6 folder, it was enlarged to 8x10. Soft everywhere, and mainly gray. I like it. Jim liked it. When I had it at on my desk at work passerby liked it. It fell miles short of everyone's minimum acceptable level of sharpness. Mush R us. And yet it pleased.
My brother, who pays his bills by selling prints, shoots 35 mm. He has one shot, taken somewhere in the San Juans, that sells fairly well at 20" x 30". Sharp it isn't, it can't bear close examination. But it pleases him and many others. Strong composition and all that. There's really more than image quality.
Yeah, there is even a name for it. It's called Art.
The seagull is a very good compromise. The buzzard is almost impossible to hand-hold and the canary is too fragile.
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Thanks Dan for the reminder..
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