{"id":3183,"date":"2014-03-02T17:33:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T01:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=3183"},"modified":"2019-11-19T22:29:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T06:29:50","slug":"mastering-sharpness-depth-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/02\/mastering-sharpness-depth-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering Sharpness – Depth of Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

A topic that receives a lot of attention in our workshops is focus.\u00a0 It\u2019s incredibly important, so important that I consider Appropriate Sharpness to be one of the four pillars of a successful landscape photograph.\u00a0 (For more, read Making a Photograph – The Four Pillars<\/a>.)\u00a0 Most of the questions center around depth of field and hyperfocal distance.\u00a0 In fact, this is so important that I give a class on Appropriate Sharpness during just about every workshop.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start the discussion with Depth of Field<\/p>\n

Depth of Field<\/h3>\n

This is the range, if you will, of objects in the view of your camera that are in focus. \u00a0Objects in front of this range are out of focus as well as objects behind the range. \u00a0A deep depth of field would have the flowers just a few feet from you camera and the distant mounts miles away all in focus.\u00a0 The depth of field would then extend from a couple of feet to infinity and for all practical purposes would be infinitely deep. \u00a0This is often referred to as a ‘near-far composition.’<\/p>\n

\"death_valley_sunrise_2012_rrpm_rc0\"<\/a>A shallow depth of field may be just a couple of inches deep with nearer and more distant objects out of focus.\u00a0 This is referred to as \u2018Selective Focus.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"sego_palm_130629__SM36636\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Where to Focus, aka Focal Distance<\/h3>\n

Focusing may seem simple with sophisticated auto-focus cameras and lenses but one of the greatest challenges faced by landscape photographers is getting sharp images.\u00a0 To do that you need to answer two questions \u2013 where do I focus and how do I get the proper depth of field? \u00a0Regarding determining where to focus, there are two techniques when you want everything to be sharp \u2013 focus on an object 1\/3rd up from the bottom of the frame or focus on an object at the hyperfocal distance.\u00a0 Both of these techniques are useful in different situations,<\/p>\n

The 1\/3rd-up technique is most useful in photographs that do not include objects close to the camera.\u00a0 In general, if the nearest object is, say, at least 50 feet from the front of the lens then the 1\/3-up technique works just fine.\u00a0 Sometimes auto-focus will give this to you; that is, it will select an object roughly 1\/3rd up from the bottom of the screen. \u00a0Other times it doesn’t. \u00a0In that case, switch to manual focus, identify the object you want to use and use live view to focus on it.\u00a0 As for f\/stop you can probably use f\/8 or possibly f\/11.\u00a0 (I should point out that we are talking about wide angle lenses here, NOT telephoto.\u00a0 They have a very shallow depth of field when focusing on nearby objects.)<\/p>\n

The other technique is Hyperfocal Distance.\u00a0 But what is that?\u00a0 It\u2019s the distance from the camera where, when you focus on it, everything is in focus from the nearest object to infinity.<\/p>\n

The hyperfocal distance technique is indispensable when the nearest object is less than 20 feet from the front of the lens.\u00a0 And if the object is 10 feet or closer it\u2019s the only way.\u00a0 The first step when using the hyperfocal technique is to compose your image.\u00a0 Adjust you zoom, tilt and turn your camera until you get the composition you want.\u00a0 Take your time and get it right.\u00a0 Next, observe an object at the bottom of the frame that is the closest to the camera lens.\u00a0 Then step to the side of your camera (you\u2019re on a tripod, aren\u2019t you?) and determine the distance from the lens to the object.\u00a0 You can guesstimate it, use a tape measure or a laser range finder, whatever. I guesstimate. \u00a0Once you have this distance it\u2019s easy to calculate the hyperfocal distance.\u00a0 You multiply it by two.\u00a0 Yep, that simple.\u00a0 One would think with a technical name like \u2018hyperfocal distance\u2019 that you\u2019d have to have a degree in algebra but fortunately for all of us we only need to remember our 2 times tables.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s do a quick example.\u00a0 Say when you get your image composed the nearest object is 2.5 feet from the front of the lens and the most distant object is at infinity.\u00a0 This is going to require an extreme depth of field (we\u2019ll get to that in a moment). \u00a0But it’s easy to figure the hyperfocal distance – it’s 5 feet.<\/p>\n

Getting the Proper Depth of Field<\/h3>\n

The techniques we’re discussing assume you have setup your camera to give you the proper depth of field.\u00a0 But how do you adjust the depth of field? \u00a0Well, without changing your focal length or the object you\u2019re focusing on (your focal distance) you adjust your aperture.\u00a0 Lower f\/stops give a shallower depth of field and higher f\/stops give a deeper depth of field.\u00a0 The next question then is what f\/stop do you need?\u00a0 Well, there’s an app for that – lots of them actually. \u00a0Oh yea, I almost forgot. You can print depth of field charts off the internet. \u00a0But why use paper charts when you can use a cool app.<\/p>\n

I like Lens*Lab.\u00a0 It\u2019s available for both iOS and Android and it looks like this\u2026<\/p>\n

\"lenslab_IMG_0285\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was a little put off by this at first thinking the display is a bit cluttered with a lot of confusing controls. But after playing with it a little it’s become \u00a0my favorite. \u00a0A Depth of Field app should be able to easily answer the question, “What f\/stop will give me the proper depth of field?” \u00a0And this one does it the best. \u00a0But first, let me show you around.<\/p>\n

At the top is a pictorial representation of what is in focus and what is out with some numbers in the upper left hand corner that quantify that. \u00a0The green line shows the beginning of the depth of field range and the orange line shows the end. \u00a0The yellow line shows your focal distance. \u00a0At the very bottom are three sliders to adjust the three variables that determine the depth of field \u2013 Focal Distance, Focal Length and Aperture.\u00a0 In the middle is where you configure Lens*Lab for your particular camera and lenses. \u00a0For example, my camera has a full frame sensor so that is what I selected.<\/p>\n

Continuing with the example above, the nearest object is 2.5 feet from the camera and we know we want to focus on our hyperfocal distance which is 5 feet. \u00a0So we set the Focal Distance slider to 5\u2019 0\u201d.\u00a0 Assume we\u2019re using a 24-70 mm f\/2.8 zoom lens zoomed all the way out to 24 mm.\u00a0\u00a0 The Focal Length slider is set to 24 mm.\u00a0 At this setting our depth of field, as revealed by the figures on top, extends from 4\u2019 1\u201d to 6\u2019 4\u201d.\u00a0 In other words, our total depth of field is only 2\u2019 3\u201d.\u00a0 That\u2019s because the f\/stop is wide open and our focal distance is only 5 feet away.\u00a0 Back to the question, what f\/stop do we need to get the depth of field we want? To determine that we start sliding the Aperture slider to the right.\u00a0 As we do all of the lines start moving except our yellow focal distance line. \u00a0The orange line leaves the frame on the right as our depth of field increases and a red line moves in to take it’s place. \u00a0That’s the Hyperfocal Distance line.<\/p>\n

\"lenslab_IMG_0286\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The farther we move the slider to the right the farther the red Hyperfocal Distance line moves to the left.\u00a0 Now, based on our composition (which we haven\u2019t changed) we know the hyperfocal distance we want is 5\u2019 which is where we set the Focal Distance slider.\u00a0 So if we continue moving the Aperture slider to the right eventually the red Hyperfocal Distance line will reach our yellow Focal Distance line and that will tell us the f\/stop we need to get a depth of field that will extend from our nearest object at 2\u2019 6\u201d to infinity.\u00a0 Let\u2019s do that and see what we get.<\/p>\n

\"lenslab_IMG_0287\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The two lines coincide at f\/13 and that\u2019s what we need to set our aperture at.\u00a0 If we take a peek at the statistics in the upper left corner we see that the Hyperfocal Distance is 4\u2019 11\u201d, the DoF Far is infinity, the Focal Distance is still 5\u2019 0\u201d and the DoF Near is 2\u2019 5\u201d.\u00a0 So at f\/13 everything will be in focus from 2.5 feet to infinity.\u00a0 We make the adjustment on our camera without disturbing anything else and now we can press the shutter.<\/p>\n

I always have my iPhone with me on shoots so that I can run this quick calculation when the 1\/3rd-up technique doesn’t apply.\u00a0 And this technique really works. \u00a0Another good thing is it forces you to slow down which I think is so important to connecting with your subject. \u00a0And it saves the extreme frustration of getting home and finding out that an image you were really excited about is ruined because it\u2019s out of focus.<\/p>\n

Now, I know someone who reads this will say, \u201cWhat about diffraction?\u201d or “You’re forgetting about circles of confusion and pixel size.” \u00a0And, yes, these are valid points.\u00a0 But this article is long enough and that will be a good topic for a follow-up article.<\/p>\n

Why not join us on a workshop where we go into more detail on this and other important topics; they’re great. \u00a0Click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

(3486)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the Four Pillars of a successful landscape photograph is Appropriate Sharpness. This article explains how to get sharp images and illustrates how a useful app \u2013 Lens*Lab \u2013 can help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1277,4],"tags":[1280,385,126,542,1284,489,488,275,491,1279,1282,1281,57,1283,506,26,13,1278,52,93,1358],"class_list":["post-3183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus-how-to-articles","category-how-to-articles","tag-android","tag-aperture","tag-composition","tag-depth-of-field","tag-dof","tag-focal-distance","tag-focal-length","tag-focus","tag-hyperfocal-distance","tag-ios","tag-ipad","tag-iphone","tag-landscape","tag-lenslab","tag-photo","tag-photograph","tag-photography","tag-selective-focus","tag-technique","tag-workshop","tag-workshops"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-Pl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3183"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4626,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3183\/revisions\/4626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}