Nelson's Dock Yard, Antigua.

View of Freeman's Bay on Antigua in the Caribbean.

We were in Antigua a little over a year ago.  An amazing place to be sure, the hilly landscape provided many opportunities to get above the scenery and shoot from an elevated position.  I took this photo from Shirely Heights, a position to the south of the harbour. 

When doing landscape photography I am on the lookout for anything which contributes to the image.  This could involve framing, using lines, paying attention to thirds, finding an attractive angle to shoot from, and having a foreground subject.  In the shot above the lines of the beach and horizon naturally guide the eye, but a suitable foreground item was needed to give the image more appeal. 

I quite liked the cactus, which lent a sense of irony to the tropical paradise, and the lichen encrusted rock was a nice touch too.  The problem with such an image is trying to get everything in focus.  This requires using a technique called hyperfocal focusing.  It is actually not too difficult but entails some specific camera adjustments.  Below are the steps to achieving hyperfocal focusing:

  1 - choose a wide angle lens (or zoom down to a low millimeter focal length).  Lower numbers are better, although there is a trade off as the background quickly reduces in size.  I shot the above image at 26 mm on a full frame camera body.  Relative values between 28 mm and 18 mm tend to work well.   Lower focal lengths give greater depth of field at any given aperture.

  2 - Use aperture priority and set the aperture to a large f/number value.  Larger values (smaller apertures) give more depth of field than do smaller numbers (larger apertures) at any given focal length.  Aperture values at f/11 or higher work, with f/values at 16 or 22 being preferred.  Keep an eye on shutter speed though; it decreases inversely to the aperture.

  3 - Choose your point of focus.  It cannot be at infinity and not be on the foreground.  It should be somewhere in between, but significantly closer to the foreground than the background.  You can focus manually or use center-point focus lock by pressing half way down on the shutter button and reframing.  Some camera lenses are equipped with a "full time manual override" collar which allows you to alter focus after it is locked in.  Whatever your method, you will need to play with it a bit.

  4 - Bracket focusing.  Take a photo then press "Play" on your camera; zoom in to see the if everything is in focus.  If not change the focus point a bit in the direction towards the out-of-focus parts and try again.  Repeat until you have it all in focus.  If you can't get it all you will have to alter the focal length or the aperture to get more depth of field.

Once you have done this for a bit it will become second hand to you.  There are a lot of variables, but you will begin to master them over time.  Remember to play and have fun.

Keep on shooting.