End of Summer
I learned about hyperfocal distance a long time ago. I used to use it to get maximum depth of field in my landscape photography, when I was going for that type of thing. However, with the birth of auto focus, I never really thought much about it anymore. However, now that I’m doing everything myself, focus included, it has started to become useful again.
The other day I went out to the beach. Now that the summer season is officially over with the passing of Labor Day on September 7th, the beaches are clear of the tourists. Now, the locals can reclaim the beach. Myself included. I consider myself a local now. Anyway, I wanted to try some decisive moment type shooting. I remember reading that many of them used hyperfocal focusing. That is they selected an aperture that would maximize their depth of field, set the hyperfocal distance, set the corresponding shutter speed, then away they went.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, as I had a 50mm lens, not a 35mm or 24mm, which would have guaranteed me a much greater DOF. However, I was game to try. I set my camera to f/8, metered, set the shutter speed, and the hyperfocal distance for f/8. Then, I walked around seeing what I could see. I was careful not to touch the focusing ring.
I was quite surprised at the sharpness that I got! For me, these images looked like I intentionally focused on the subject, but was not the case. According to my lens markings, my range of ‘acceptable focus’ was between 15ft and infinity. When I wanted to take a photo, I simply framed it, and took the photo. That makes for some lightning fast photography. No need to futz around with the focusing ring or the AF button, etc. See. Frame. Shoot. You can squeeze off a shot so quickly that no one even notices! I was able to do that several times.
Room to play
If you’ve never tried it, you ought to give it a shot. You can do it on an auto focus camera, but you’ll have to make sure that you are in manual focus mode and, more important, that your lens has the appropriate markings to show what your depth of field will be. I had a look at the Nikon 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm lenses, all have the markings.
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12 Responses to “Hyperfocal focusing”
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Incredible detail and sharpness Paul, I use a set up for hyperfocal on my G9 when doing street work. It makes things a lot faster and you don’t miss the moment. Excellent tip for my reborn film work.
When I was walking around Seattle with Ray, I let the Contax auto-focus but with the Bessa I zone focussed. Part of what I was experimenting with by renting the Contax was how rapidly could a medium-format SLR auto-focus? It was okay. But then when I switched to the Bessa (and then to Ray’s Dad’s M3) I felt free.
I remember when I was doing the street work in Tempe I tried one night to manual-focus my 50mm FD lens. It took a while, but there were a few moments when I actually felt like I was reacting and getting the shot that way. It would take me quite a bit of practice, though, before I felt any good at it. I sure don’t yet.
Interesting, this is a somewhat forgotten technique, and it’s sad how many prime lenses that not comes with these markings, any more.
That’s an impressive lens you have there, it is clearly as made for photographing this way. The first picture is really, really good. I just love this composition of the woman and the chair.
f8 and be there.
“I had a look at the Nikon 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm lenses, all have the markings.”
Paul, that does not apply to the newer “G” lenses such as the AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G or AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G.
@Matthew: Absolutely right. The G lenses are the cheap lenses that have no ability to control the aperture manually. They are digital only. They are, for this type of shooting, totally worthless. I just omitted those because I wouldn’t even consider buying one.
I guess those who know what “Hyperfocal Focusing” is are have become a (negligible) minority among the camera buyers – and from those who still know and use it, the camera makers can charge higher prices for this “pro” feature of a lens.
Your b&w images are both really fine – #1 because of those two distributed subjects anticipating future action of the woman, #2 because of that slight motion blur of the running kid. The image would be much less interesting without it.
@Markus: I’m pretty sure that there are few people how know what hyperfocal focusing is and probably fewer still who are interested. With mostly all, if not all, cameras being auto focus, I can see how this would fall our of favor. It is a great technique, though. I think that I’ll use it more.
Regarding the photos, thanks. Sometimes serendipity smiles upon us. In the first photo, I did intentionally imply that the lady was walking to the chair, though in reality, it was not her chair. She actually just walked on by. Fortunately, it was a lone chair and a lone woman. Perfect.
In the second photo, the kids were playing and I just wanted to capture that sense of fun. I remember my first trip to the beach and remember getting buried in the sand.
Oh, I really would consider buying some of Nikon’s cheap G lenses, if I only could afford them. For instance the AF-S 14-24mm 2.8G ED, the AF-S 24-70mm 2.8G ED, the AF-S VR 70-200mm 2.8G ED II, the AF-S VR 200-400mm 4G IF-ED, the AF-S VR 200mm 2.0G IF-ED, not to speak of the longer bazookas
@Andreas: It really depends on what you want to do with them. I can see doing that for focal lengths greater than 50mm, or so. However, for maximum versatility for 50mm or less, I’d have to have the aperture markings, etc.
Paul. Really enjoying your website! As you eluded to in your previous comment, I am one of those people who would like to know more about “hyperfocal focusing”. I understand its definition, but rarely does anyone explain how to set up your hyperfocal distance. Please correct me if I am wrong (and I do apologize for my ignorance in the subject); when i set my aperture at f/8, do i set my focus ring to line up infinity to “f/8″ on my DOF scale? and for any other aperature, just like up to infinity? Is that how it goes?
Thank you sir and keep up the great work
Hey, William. Yep. You’ve got it. You would place the infinity mark in line with the right-most 8, then you can read the depth of field. For example, on my Olympus 35 LC, DOF at f/8 would be 2.5 feet to infinity. At f/16, about 1.2 ft to infinity. Here is a really good article that explains it in depth, no pun intended … maybe. Once you’ve used it a couple of times, you needn’t worry about all of the associated mumbo-jumbo. Then, it just becomes a matter of point and shoot.