2 years, 2 months ago
What is Hyperfocal focus?
what creates hyperfocal focus
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M$3 Answers
In order to understand hyperfocal focus, you need to understand hyperfocal distance and the hyperfocal point.
Hyperfocal distance is defined as the distance between the camera and the hyperfocal point.
The hyperfocal point is the closest point to the camera which is sharp (zone of sharp detail) when the lens, set at a particular aperture (fstop) is focused on infinity. If the lens is focused on this point, the depth of field (the amount of the image that will be in acceptable focus) will extend from infinity to a point half-way between the camera and the hyperfocal point. By focusing the lens for this distance, the view is still sharp at infinity but the depth of filed now extends back toward the camera to half the hyperfocal distance.
If you have a lens with a depth of field scale on it (many modern digital lenses don't), by studying it you can learn that greater depth of field (area of focus in an image) results from using higher fstop numbers. You will also see from the spacing of the distance figures that there is much greater depth of field at the more distant subject settings. Focal length of the lens comes into play as well, so you need to remember that aperture, subject distance and focal length all come affect depth of field. Wider angle lenses tend to have a greater hyperfocal distance than say a telephoto lens, and true macro lenses have very shallow hyperfocal distances for close focusing.
The way a savvy photographer uses hyperfocal distance is by first understanding what areas of an image he/she desires in focus and which areas are acceptable or desirable to allow to fall out of focus. Landscape photographers generally want everything in the camera's field of view in focus as much as possible. By caculating hyperfocal distance via the depth of field scale you can plan your shot. (Older high end film cameras used to have a depth of field preview button so you could actually preview it before you took the shot).
What creates hyperfocal distance (mechanically) is the lens shifting the position of the elements as you focus (the lens must shift position far more when focusing on close subjects than when you focus it on subjects far away) and by the cone of light created between the lens and the film plane/sensor plane. The way that focal length comes into play here is that long focal length lenses have to move position more than shorter focal length lenses in order to focus on the same range as subject distances.
So, how do you use hyperfocal focus? Well, say you want to take a photo of a single bright yellow leaf hanging from a tree branch, and you wanted to emphasize that leaf, singling it out from the background of other trees, grass, mountains in the background, or whatever. You would need to focus on the leaf to and check your lens scale to find your subject distance. Say just for giggles you were using a 50mm lens and your distance was 3 feet (1 meter). Your depth of field scale might show that at f1.8 your hyperfocal distance is 3 feet, f4 is between 2.5 and 4 feet and at f16 it is between say 1.5 and 6 feet. By selecting f1.8, you are narrowing your zone of sharp detail to an area of the leaf, and just slightly in front and slightly behind the leaf, blurring every thing outside that range. By allowing the foreground and background to be blurred (lens bokah) and keeping the leaf in the zone of sharp detail, you have effectively visually isolated your subject.
I hope this hasn't been too confusing. If I have been too unclear on anything let me know any maybe I can explain it in further detail.
Hyperfocal distance is defined as the distance between the camera and the hyperfocal point.
The hyperfocal point is the closest point to the camera which is sharp (zone of sharp detail) when the lens, set at a particular aperture (fstop) is focused on infinity. If the lens is focused on this point, the depth of field (the amount of the image that will be in acceptable focus) will extend from infinity to a point half-way between the camera and the hyperfocal point. By focusing the lens for this distance, the view is still sharp at infinity but the depth of filed now extends back toward the camera to half the hyperfocal distance.
If you have a lens with a depth of field scale on it (many modern digital lenses don't), by studying it you can learn that greater depth of field (area of focus in an image) results from using higher fstop numbers. You will also see from the spacing of the distance figures that there is much greater depth of field at the more distant subject settings. Focal length of the lens comes into play as well, so you need to remember that aperture, subject distance and focal length all come affect depth of field. Wider angle lenses tend to have a greater hyperfocal distance than say a telephoto lens, and true macro lenses have very shallow hyperfocal distances for close focusing.
The way a savvy photographer uses hyperfocal distance is by first understanding what areas of an image he/she desires in focus and which areas are acceptable or desirable to allow to fall out of focus. Landscape photographers generally want everything in the camera's field of view in focus as much as possible. By caculating hyperfocal distance via the depth of field scale you can plan your shot. (Older high end film cameras used to have a depth of field preview button so you could actually preview it before you took the shot).
What creates hyperfocal distance (mechanically) is the lens shifting the position of the elements as you focus (the lens must shift position far more when focusing on close subjects than when you focus it on subjects far away) and by the cone of light created between the lens and the film plane/sensor plane. The way that focal length comes into play here is that long focal length lenses have to move position more than shorter focal length lenses in order to focus on the same range as subject distances.
So, how do you use hyperfocal focus? Well, say you want to take a photo of a single bright yellow leaf hanging from a tree branch, and you wanted to emphasize that leaf, singling it out from the background of other trees, grass, mountains in the background, or whatever. You would need to focus on the leaf to and check your lens scale to find your subject distance. Say just for giggles you were using a 50mm lens and your distance was 3 feet (1 meter). Your depth of field scale might show that at f1.8 your hyperfocal distance is 3 feet, f4 is between 2.5 and 4 feet and at f16 it is between say 1.5 and 6 feet. By selecting f1.8, you are narrowing your zone of sharp detail to an area of the leaf, and just slightly in front and slightly behind the leaf, blurring every thing outside that range. By allowing the foreground and background to be blurred (lens bokah) and keeping the leaf in the zone of sharp detail, you have effectively visually isolated your subject.
I hope this hasn't been too confusing. If I have been too unclear on anything let me know any maybe I can explain it in further detail.
source(s):
29 years of experience
29 years of experience
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M$
Hyperfocal focus can be defined as
--quote---
When shooting a landscape, you want everything sharp from the front to the back of the scene. Setting a small aperture such as f/16, f/22 or even f/32 can help, but if you really want to maximize depth of field, hyperfocal focusing is the technique you need to use.
--end quote---
The source website contains info about Hyperfocal focus is a recommended must read article which explains all technical details.
--quote---
When shooting a landscape, you want everything sharp from the front to the back of the scene. Setting a small aperture such as f/16, f/22 or even f/32 can help, but if you really want to maximize depth of field, hyperfocal focusing is the technique you need to use.
--end quote---
The source website contains info about Hyperfocal focus is a recommended must read article which explains all technical details.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
If you're looking for the quick answer, try to focus about 1/3 into the scene with any aperture smaller than f8 (usually used in landscape photography, this will maximize the amount of the scene that is sharp, may seem like common sense to some, but I have met some amateur landscape photographers that just always focus at the edge of the horizon, essentially infinity, this will not keep your foreground in focus, you need to bring the focus in. hyper focus is just getting the maximum depth of field possible with the chosen aperture.
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M$
I know, it can become really confusing, can't it? If the lens is focused on the hyperfocal point, the depth of field will extend from infinity to a point half-way betwen the camera and the hyperfocal point.
The hyperfocal distance of a lens is defined as the distance from the optical center of the lens to the nearest point in acceptable sharp focus when the camera is focused on infinaty at any given fstop. When a lens is focused at infinity, the hyperfocal distance at that lens is defined as the near limit of the depth of field while infinity is the far distance. When the lens is focused at the hyperfocal distance, the depth of field is from exactly half that distance to infinity.
By the way you describe it, I think you probably have a vague grasp (I am NOT trying to insult you by the way!) of how hyperfocal distance works. A general rule of thumb that some photographers shooting landscapes use in an attempt to take advantage of hyperfocal distance is to focus about one-third of the way into an image to bring everything from the foreground to objects in the distance into acceptable focus. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, mostly depending upon the focal length of the lens and the aperture selected. It is more accurate to use the scale on the lens (if it has one) or to use a chart.
And I always thought the hyperfocal point was the optimum focal point at the furthest distance which is typically just shy of maximum.
For example, if I'm shooting a mountain across a field of lilies if I'm able to zoom in on the picture while focused on the furthest point possible (in this case the mountain), nothing within normal shooting range will be in the best focus - none of the lilies will be sharp.
So if I back off focusing on the mountain to allow some of the lilies to be sharp, that is my hyperfocal point.
I must have been using the wrong word. Now I don't know what to call what I just described. :)