need some help with scenery photography

[Cuchulain]

A little while ago you guys gave me some solid advice on product photography and it's worked out really well, we get regular complements on it now so thanks for that.

I'm having some bother with scenic shots now though and just want to check if it's me being an idiot or the lens I'm using being crap.

I use a Sigma 10-20mm at 10mm, F/10, ISO 100, focus lock to a point around 3m away then re-frame and shoot, tripod mounted using 10 sec timer.

Everything I seem to shoot ends up either soft or noisy and under-saturated. It may just be me not taking the shots properly or not using the right settings, I just want a scenic shot with a full depth of field.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cuchulain]

What body do you have? Can you do bracketed exposures?

f10 should be more or less the sweet spot of the lens, and focusing at 3m should have everything from there to infinity in focus.

Can you post an example with exif data intact?

I can do bracketed exposures but I don't really want to have to bugger about combining images, I've got some cokin ND grads on the way so the sky doesn't overexpose.

Probably should have kept some of the ones I tried from yesterday but I formatted the card they were on this morning I'll get out later in the week and get some samples and keep the exif intact.

 

[Cuchulain]

Thanks for all the tips folks, lot of a good advice which I'll use. Need to wait until the weather picks up before I try again but I appreciate all the help.