It has been a while, lots of big things happening...

Lady Slipper Sunset, Port Elizabeth

Very interesting things happening and I promise to keep sharing as it unfolds. My photography is almost exclusively landscape and seascape. As much as I enjoy shooting people, pets and who knows what else, I keep coming back to this genre.

In this post I wish to share some ideas about getting the best possible quality image from which to print LARGE landscape prints.

I have cycled past this view of the Lady Slipper mountain a few times and finally got to shoot it. Conditions were not great and the atmosphere was a bit hazy but it was still pretty.

So last night I headed out armed with 3 cameras. They were my 22Mp APS-C Fuji X-T3 with a 35mm f/2 lens, a 46Mp full frame Nikon D850 D-SLR and my old faithful vintage 12Mp Canon 5D Mk1 D-SLR. Both D-SLR cameras were shot with 50mm f/1,4 lenses.

Hardly a fair competion I hear you say. This is true. So why am I doing this?

Recently I thought I saw evidence of a 16 year old camera with a 12 Mp sensor beating a 2 year old 22Mp APS-C mirrorless camera. Now this could be argued a dozen ways in both directions, right?

This mixed light post-sunset shot of the Port Elizabeth harbour from Humewood beach recently made me sit up and pay attention. I rediscovered it in my archives. It was shot with one of my old classic Canon EOS 5D Mk 1 or 5D Classic as some call them.

I love shooting scenes such as these and I often use very long shutter speeds to get that milky blur effect in the water.

The problem with this is that filters are often required to keep light out. A few other issues also have a bearing on this but I shall not bore you with those now...maybe next time.

The bottom line is that no single component in this set-up can be of mediocre quality. Robbing the image file of detail does not make for a high quality file that can be printed large.

As a case in point, this Mossel Bay harbour shot is moderately pleasing. Until we look at the detail.

Yes, this is a very small crop of a distant part of the image but the starburst caused by the long exposure of that light is simply not good enough for me.

Not only am I not happy with the quality of the rather messy starbursts. Some detail of fixed structures is also rendered in a way that I am not happy with.

Consider, if you will, this small crop from the harbour sunset up above. Much more to my taste in terms of crisp detail that would work on large prints.

But...

Yes, there is almost always a but.

One should never make big decisions in a rush. Also, big decisions can definitely not be made on one specific aspect in two images.

Starbursts from lights are generally considered a factor of the specific lens and not the sensor type or size. Also the Mossel Bay harbour image was shot on an APS-C mirrorless camera with a wide angle zoom. The Port Elizabeth harbour image was shot on a full frame D-SLR with a 50mm prime lens.

Is it fair to compare APS-C crop bodies against full frame sensors? Is it fair to compare a 16 year old D-SLR with a current one with practically four times the resolution? Probably not. And maybe, who knows?

There is a lot here I have to test and test properly. Doing so is a great part of the fun and that is why I take half a camera shop with me.

Stick around to see further progress and what I do to find the best possible solution for this problem.

As I said at the beginning, my goal here is to find the best solution for the best quality large format print. This, to me, means not spending the price of a house on the camera and the price of a car on the lens.

Happy shooting and looking forward to seeing you soon.

Anton