In this episode I’ll show you how to get
everything in focus from the closest object to the camera
all the way to infinity.
Adorama TV presents Exploring Photography with Mark Wallace.
Hi everybody, welcome to this episode of Exploring Photography I'm Mark Wallace.
Well if your a scenic photographer or your a photo journalist
or your travel photographer sometimes you want everything in focus
and you can do that by understanding what hyper focal
distance is and what the hyper focal setting of your lens is.
Now that seems sorta technical and confusing but actually it's pretty
simple. First let me explain what hyper focal means.
It's the setting on your lens that gives you the most
depth of field, the most in focus and we do that with the combination
of our lens, an aperture value and how far away we are
focusing. Now every lens focuses at a
distance. So you're focusing five feet away or 10 feet away or
forty feet away and you're using an aperture value,
the combination of those two can give you different depth's of field. Now our hyper focal
distance just means that half that distance whatever it is, maybe your focusing at 10
feet, half that distance to
infinity are gonna be in focus. So let’s say you focus at ten feet.
Well everything from five feet to infinity will be in focus, it's the most
focus you can get for the lens that you're using. Now to make this simple you
need to understand
3 things and that is the right lens to use,
the right aperture value to use and where to focus your lens.
So let's start by talking about the lenses that we want to use.
If you want everything in focus you need to start using a wide angle
lens or use the wide angle part of your zoom lens. Now for this I highly recommend that
you use a prime
lens. One of those lenses that is set, it doesn't zoom in or zoom out.
You want to use a wide prime lens if you can.
So something like a 35mm or
21mm or 28mm lens.
Now I love my 35mm lens and I made a video all about that but for
most
in focus I really enjoy shooting with my 21mm lens and a 28mm is
pretty good as well.
The point is use a wide angle lens and the other thing that you need to have on
your lens
is a distance scale. So when you're focusing your lens
you need to be able to see how far you're focusing. You need to be able to look on
your lens and say, I'm focusing at 3ft or 6ft or 10ft.
Most prime lenses have that. Some zoom lenses have that but you need to have a
distance scale
and even better is if you have a depth of field scale
on your lens. Now this is a depth of field scale
on my 21mm lens and it will show me different
aperture values, how much is in focus and that makes the hyper focal stuff
really easy but I'm getting ahead of myself. So we want a wide angle lens
preferrably a prime lens and we want one at least
a distance scale but at best a distance
and depth of field scale. The next thing we need to know
is the aperture value to use. Now I know many times I've said and many photographers will
tell you that you want a really small aperture to get everything
in focus. That can be a mistake because if you go all the way to the smallest aperture
of your lens
like f/22 or something like that, well you get this thing called diffraction. Where light
is bouncing around in weird ways inside your lens
and that can actually make your pictures look less sharp then if you shoot at a wider
aperture, something like
f/8 or f/11. You want to use the aperture value that’s sort of in the middle.
So f/8 or f/11 are your best choices.
I highly recommend using f/8 if you're shooting at a 28mm or 21mm
lens its gonna give you everything you really want and it's gonna be really
clear. Now the last thing you need to know is where to focus your camera. How
far you need to focus.
Well you need to know the first two things to figure out the third.
You need to know which lens your using and you need to know the aperture value
and then
you need to use something called a hyper focal distance
calculator. Ahh that sounds so mathematical and horrible but actually it's
really easy
because you only have to do this calculation one time
and everything is gonna stay the same for ever so if you're using a 21mm
lens and you're shooting in f/8 then your hyper focal distance is
going to be the same
every single time. So once you know it you set your lens that same way
every time and it’s going to work. Where do you find a hyper focal distance calculator?
Well lucky for us there's this awesome website it's called
outsite.com/hyperfocal.html
and there is a depth of field calculator there and all kinds
of cool depth of field stuff so check that out.
You can put in your lens, your camera size because your sensor size impacts depth
of field the aperture value that you want to use.
I suggest f/8 or f/11. Click a little button it will tell you
exactly where to focus your lens. So once you know all of that stuff and you've got your
lens on
then you can say, you know what I know it f/8 at
21mm that my focus distance
should be about six feet. So you would just go and focus at 6ft, set your aperture to
f/8 and then you're done. If you have a depth of field
guide on your lens like this one does it's even easier. You don’t have to go to that website and
figure anything out.
All you have to do is look at your depth of field guide, set your aperture. So I’m gonna set
mine at
f/8 on this lens. If I had a different lens maybe I would set my aperture value
in the camera. It doesn't matter how you set your aperture you just have to said
it first
and then you look on the depth of field guide and you just move the Infiniti
until it lines up with the aperture value your using.
So for this instance it’s f/8 and you're set. That you're hyper focal distance and
then you can see that
everything f/8 from infinity, all the way over to about three feet
is going to be in focus. Three-feet all the way to infinity.
If I change my aperture value to f/11,
well then I would just shift this until my infinity is over the 11
and then everything it's gonna be in focus from, oh gosh about two feet all
the way over to infinity.
That's all you have to do. Shooting with hyper focal is awesome because you get
everything in focus. In fact here's a bunch of pictures I’ve used
using this technique and you can see everything from in this picture the
flowers all the way to the
French Senate building is in focus. You can see I've shot street photography,
scenic photography, some journalistic kinda stuff using a wide angle lens.
The right aperture value and the right focus distance
and the good news is once you've done all this you put in your lens
you put in your aperture value f/8 and then you've set your distance,
don't focus again that's a very important!
Make sure you have your lens set to manual focus. If you're using a DSLR
camera
there's a gotcha because when you look through the viewfinder of
your DSLR camera the aperture is wide open so you're not seeing
that everything is in focus you're seeing selective focus. If you wanna see
everything that's in focus
there is a little button at the bottom your camera it’s a depth of field
preview button. If you push that, it will close down the aperture and then you'll see
that everything is in focus.
Don't be tempted to refocus because once you have your focus set
everything's gonna be in focus just trust it and then you can focus on your
composition
and you can just shoot away. The last thing, you want to set your camera to
aperture priority mode so that your aperture stays the same and your shutter
changes based on the light or
shoot in manual mode if you want to but once you have things set
just forget it and have a blast just look at what you want to take pictures
of. Take those pictures you'll see everything's in focusing your gonna get
those
everything close to infinity pictures that you love and that you want and its
totally liberating
because our just kind of pointing and shooting and focusing on composition
and storytelling and all the things that make it fun to take pictures.
So do that. That's all there is to hyper focus shooting. Get the right lens,
right aperture value, figure out the distance that you need to shoot
set your lens forget it and just get out there and shoot.
Well thank you so much for joining me for this episode is a bunch more about
hyper focal
distance and depth of field on the Adorama Learning Center
and on AdoramaTV we’ve posted links to it in the description of
this video, So check those out if depth of field and those types of things are new
to you and we have a long video about hyper focus distance and what it all means and
funny graphics and things like that. So you can check that one out as. Thank you so much
for joining me
in this episode of Exploring Photography. Don't forget to subscribe, just click that subscribe button
everything single video is absolutely free. Thanks again and i'll see you again
next time.
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