Good luck finding your hyperfocal distance and optimum aperture that way. Autofocus zoom lenses, which are all the rage, feature severely truncated depth-of-field scales that are all but useless. Alas, such lenses aren’t in much use these days.
#Hyper focal pro manual#
Old-style fixed-focal length manual focus lenses have great depth-of-field scales that are both easy to use and reasonably accurate. I told you this gets worse.įirst, you can rely on the depth-of-field scales on your lenses. There are several ways to calculate hyperfocal distance, although none of them are simultaneously accurate and easy to implement in the field.
At this point, if your brain hasn’t begun to throb slightly, don’t worry-it will get even worse very soon. Other variables in the equation can be the size of the print that you wish to make, and how far away someone will stand to view the print. Part of the reason that hyperfocal distance is so vexing is that it is built on a subjective variable that is, what level of sharpness is considered to be “acceptable.” The criterion for the desired acceptable sharpness is specified by an aptly-named variable known as the “circle of confusion limit,” which (according to Wikipedia) “is the largest acceptable spot size diameter that an infinitesimal point is allowed to spread out to on the imaging medium (film, digital sensor, etc.).” Yeah, I know-huh? Basically, this is a subjective evaluation, dependent on the size of the film or the sensor, that something is sharp or not. For a brief moment I’m going to get technical, just to make a point. Understanding how hyperfocal distance works is critical if you want to make sharp 24”x30” prints to proudly hang on your wall. Hyperfocal distance is what allowed me to ensure that the flowers, mountain, and everything else in between in the image below were rendered sharp. For now, I’ll give your brain a break, and ground this discussion somewhere near the realm of reality. Hyperfocal distance and depth-of-field work together in a similar fashion to produce a photograph that is sharp from near to far.Ĭonfused? Just wait, it gets worse. The right combination of stone placement and stone size will ensure that the ripples reach all parts of the shore. To add another element to the equation, if the pond is large enough, then a small stone might not have enough heft to create ripples big enough to reach the shore. Using the stone analogy, if you throw your stone into the far edge of the pond, the ripples may dissipate before they reach your side of the shore if you throw your stone close by, then the ripples may never reach the far side of the pond if you want the ripples to reach all sides of the pond, you need to throw your stone somewhere in the middle. Hyperfocal distance tells you where to set your focus so that you may optimize your depth-of-field to extend over the critical elements of your scene. Remember, by stopping down your lens to smaller apertures, you extend your depth-of-field beyond the focus point-much like ripples radiating from a small stone thrown in a pond. Without getting too technical, think of hyperfocal distance as the optimum focus point (combined with an optimum aperture) that will render everything in your photo-from the element in the scene that is closest to you, to the element in the scene that is farthest away from you-as acceptably sharp in focus. (© Ian Plant) Finding the hyperfocal distance for any given photo is one of the most vexing technical challenges facing photographers today.