The problem is that the eye only sees a very narrow field sharply. The
remainder of the visual field is pretty soft. But our memory merges all the
pencil-scans of the landscape together, including the unconscious shift of
focus as we pan from near to far. That is why the photograph does not look
like the perceived image.

The problem is always limited depth of field. With a 75mm lens on 4x5 this
is not too much of an issue. With a 150mm it can be a real problem. There is
hardly ever enough light to stop down far enough to get everything of
interest in focus without the wind bluring things. That is where the camera
movements come in.

One of my favorite compositions for landscape is near-far -- using the tilts
of front and back to lay the plane of focus out along the ground so the tiny
details in front merge sharply with the grand forms in the back. Since my
Technika does not have calibrated scales, I skip the math, focus on the
close in area, then rotate the front untill everything crisps up. This
becomes a bit more complicated when the back needs to be pulled out, but the
approach is pretty much the same.

Of course, photographing the Grand Canyon from the rim, without any local
objects of interest is not much of a challenge. The 4x5 is just a big box
camera at that point. For pretty much anything else the movements become
key. Too bad it means lugging around the tripod as well...

--
Greg Latiak
glatiak@tekstrat.com
Images http://members.rogers.com/greglatiak/