hyperfocal again

lynnma

Hi all,

As dh and I are going to be travelling accross country through the National Parks next month :barb I've started obsessing about focas. I've been reading up on circles of confusion (yes I'm confused) and hyperfocal distance and have a pretty good understanding of it now. (I always used to focus on the actual subject?:scratch )

My question is... when I'm standing on the rim of some wonderful vista in the Grand Tetons, rather than fish around for my charts, try to convert meters into feet, try to estimate distances etc and on and on... what would be the most sensible distance to focus on.. one third into the picture? or one half.:dunno I've read that one half has superceded one third. I know it would also depend on whats in the foreground and infinity but assuming it's mountains and streams etc. I'm thinking one third but would like input from those you have been before. I have a Canon 50d with an 18-200 lens (which I really like by the way).
Thanks
Lynn

pathfinder

There are Apps for this at the App store....... I found 8 just searching for depth of field in the iPhone App store. Sadly for the Droid, searching depth of field yields no documents found!

Here is a small analog slide rule dof tool http://www.expoimaging.com/product-detail.php?cat_id=4&product_id=4&keywords=ExpoAperture2_Depth-of-Field_Guide&gclid=CKz9rvW0lqECFQykiQod8Aq4RA


I must confess, Lynn, that I am pretty relaxed about this kind of issue. I focus on what I want to be really sharp, and if I want a greater depth off field I stop down my aperture more, and I have a general idea about dof or I use the lens dof preview button.

Having said that, I usually do not vary my aperture much smaller than f11, as diffraction begins to take a toll on lens sharpness with those very small apertures. Now if someone rummages around long enough in my gallleries, I am sure they can find images shot at f22 or even f27. But my sharpest landscape images were shot between f 5.6 and f11 I am certain - 2 -3 stops smaller than wide open, just like Marc says to do.

For extreme depth of field get a tilt and shift lens!

Sam

Check this out.

http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html

There is all kinds of info like this available.

Sam

ziggy53

Remember that you can "bracket" for DOF, trying different prime focus points as well as different apertures. Just delete whatever doesn't work out.

Be sure to try to use different vantage points and natural framing elements too.

Sam

To add to ziggy53's comment you can also focus stack the images.

Sam

lynnma

Sam wrote:

To add to ziggy53's comment you can also focus stack the images.

Sam

Thanks all... after obsessing for a day or so I've relaxed into it more and I'm happy to just focus where I think I need to for that foreground and infinite view.. dh (who is not a photographer) reminds me a lot of "composition" and deciding on what I want "in focus" and what I can let go a little. I'm surprised Path that you don't usually go higher than F11... I was thinking more of F16 if light allows.. I'll bear that in mind from now on. I've read about going too high but I did'nt think it started until about F16.. I shall have to experiment. Anyhow.. I'm ready now. Taking my small tripod, remote shutter control and will mirror lock and if thats not good enough.. well.. thats as good as it gets
Lynn

Sam

Lynn,

Yes ..............relax a little............remember it's suposed to be fun.

As to f stops, I know Marc, and pathfinder recommend not going smaller than F11, but I generally shoot landscapes at f16 (5D II) and have not been able to identify diffraction. Could be my ignorance?

I use the smaller aperture for depth of field. If the scene is flatter, (front to rear has less depth, I will shoot with a larger aperture.)

Since I really respect both of these guys and you can't argue with their results I do plan on experimenting with this more when I get a chance.

Sam

Scott_Quier

pathfinder wrote:

There are Apps for this at the App store....... I found 8 just searching for depth of field in the iPhone App store. Sadly for the Droid, searching depth of field yields no documents found!

For the Droid - search the market for "Depth of Field Calculator". I found a quite nice one there by Allen Zhong (blog: www.kamakama.cn)

pathfinder

I did search for "depth of field" when I made that post Scott, but strangely I did not find any calculators for the droid. Now - I found three.

The one you linked to is actually quite good as I play with it. Thank you for pointing that out.

Scott_Quier

pathfinder wrote:

I did search for "depth of field" when I made that post Scott, but strangely I did not find any calculators for the droid. Now - I found three.

The one you linked to is actually quite good as I play with it. Thank you for pointing that out.

I'm glad to help in any way I can.

Qarik

there is good advice above..but just to ease your mind.. If you are taking vista shots with a wide angle, even if your your apeture is wide open, your hyperfocal distance is going to be somewhere ins the 10-30 feet range. Assumably your subjects are going to be in much much much further away. So go ahead and shoot away at any apeture and don't worry about the focus.

The only time you may have to worry about it is if you have a foreground element in your shot. Then just set to f/8 and shoot away! eveything behind it will be in focus.