Landscape/Portrait sharpness

[Lumpy]

I've noticed something that seems to be happening with my M6 (& Voigtlander Nokton 35mm 1.4) and I'm wondering if anyone of you guys have experienced this, or tell me it's all in my head...!
My portrait shots seem to be a bit sharper than my landscape shots, when I scan and review them. I tend to use hyperfocal focussing and as such, don't tinker too much with the focussing during shots. I could take an image, not adjust anything, turn the camera on it's side, take another and the second one will be inevitably sharper. Is this normal or does the camera need to be adjusted? Is it to do with the lens, perhaps?

 

[rogerzilla]

Do you mean portrait (vertical) orientation or actual portraits? If the latter, then it may be that the lens is accurately focused for portraits; hyperfocal focusing is only an approximation based on your tolerated circle of confusion.

 

[jsrockit]

I think you should try a more reliable way of focusing before jumping to conclusions.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Maybe you're just holding the camera less steadily in portrait orientation, and getting a bit of motion blur.

 

[Lumpy]

Maybe you're just holding the camera less steadily in portrait orientation, and getting a bit of motion blur.

The portrait shots are sharper, I'm pretty sure of it. Perhaps I do hold it steadier in one position over the other, because it seems consistent. I've just looked through a pile of images, and there is definitely a difference. 😕

 

[jsrockit]

What shutter speed do you use?

 

[Lumpy]

Do you mean portrait (vertical) orientation or actual portraits? If the latter, then it may be that the lens is accurately focused for portraits; hyperfocal focusing is only an approximation based on your tolerated circle of confusion.

I mean vertical, and I realise that HF focussing is to an acceptable sharpness, but surely there should not be a difference if I don't adjust either the camera or my position?
I should not have asked initially if it's in my head or not, because I realise that it definitely isn't.

 

[Lumpy]

What shutter speed do you use?

Generally up around 250-500

 

[rogerzilla]

If most of the vibration from handholding is in the vertical plane, a slow focal plane shutter will give more distortion in the portrait format, but that's not the same as unsharpness; each bit of film still gets only 1/250 or 1/500. Mabelsound is probably right; put the camera on a tripod to eliminate this possibility.

 

[jsrockit]

If most of the vibration from handholding is in the vertical plane, a slow focal plane shutter will give more distortion in the portrait format, but that's not the same as unsharpness; each bit of film still gets only 1/250 or 1/500. Mabelsound is probably right; put the camera on a tripod to eliminate this possibility.

He's probably not getting camera shake at 1/250th and higher though...

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Whoops, sorry, thought it was the other way around!

 

[ferider]

Can you show some examples ? Thanks.

 

[Nomad Z]

Use a tripod, and pick something to critically focus on. If it's something to do with the camera or lens, it will likely still be evident. If it goes away, then it's to do with your technique.

 

[Lumpy]

I think I know what the problem is...
When viewing my images in (any) preview program, the portrait images were showing on screen at 50%, the landscape were showing at 66.67% and therein lies the problem. As we all know, images look sharper on screen when viewed at 25, 50, 75, 100%
That seems to be problem solved. 🙂

 

[Lumpy]

You should be comparing at 100% though, as anything less will have the application doing the scaling and not an accurate representation.

Yes, it was just initially in the preview viewing.

 

[venchka]

The may well be the culprit. Most scanners have different resolutions for horizontal & vertical travel.
Can you flip the negatives? Scan horizontal vertical & vice versa?
Horizontal images are enlarged more. Try 1:1 square crops and see what happens.

 

[Rip Tragle]

Is this so with all your lenses? It is possible for your body range-finder
linkage adjustment to be dead on close and a bit out at infinity.

 

[Lumpy]

Can you flip the negatives? Scan horizontal vertical & vice versa?

Yes i can. And after the initial preview I usually rotate the portrait shots so that I can see them properly, then I scan the batch in together. I use a Canoscan 8600F

 

[Lumpy]

Is this so with all your lenses? It is possible for your body range-finder
linkage adjustment to be dead on close and a bit out at infinity.

I only have one lens for my M6. Nokton classic 35mm 1.4