Picture: Statue and gardens at Villa Toscana Winery, near Plymouth, Amador County, Sierra Foothills, California
I often get asked during workshops or classes about how someone gets everything in focus when looking from near to far. That discussion immediately turns to the concept of Depth of Field. We often see this term abbreviated as DOF. In simple terms, DOF is the area extending in a linear line away from the camera lens that will be in focus based on a particular lens focal length, f-stop, and even the sensor or film size. To maximize the area of clean focus, we need to learn about using the hyperfocal distance. The Readers Digest definition of this term is that we focus on an area in between a near and far object. Then, by using a small f-stop like f16 of f22, the camera will ‘pull’ the near and far areas into focus.
In the image above, I would have focused on the statue, and allowed the hyperfocal distance and small f-stop to keep both the foreground plants and background building in focus.
If you don’t mind swimming in google ads, visit the site, DOFMaster, where you can see a great descriptive outline of this principle, and use an online Depth of Field calculator to see how this principle applies to your own camera and lenses.
I think I need to read that site. The technical description of hyperfocal has always befuddled me. I’ve always just stopped down, focused somewhere in the midground and focus until the foreground and background are as close to in focus as possible with more priority placed on foreground sharpness. If it does’nt work then I step back an inch or two.