Hyperfocal distance
In landscapes you often want everything sharp, from the stones at your feet to the hills. The trick isn’t to focus at infinity, but at a precise distance: the hyperfocal distance.
1Simulator
Work out and test the hyperfocal distance
Choose the focal length and aperture, then decide where to focus. The scale under the photo is the one you used to find on manual lenses. The blur is exaggerated, as if you were looking at a large print: that way you can see it even on the screen of an iPhone or an Android smartphone.
In real life
Piazza Unità d’Italia, Trieste At 41 mm and f/5.6 the hyperfocal distance is about 10 metres: focus there and everything is sharp, from about 5 metres to the buildings at the far end of the square.
NIKKOR Z 24-120 mm f/4 S
How it works
1 Simulator If you focus at infinity, half the depth of field ends up beyond infinity and is wasted. If you focus at the hyperfocal distance, the sharp zone runs from half that distance all the way to infinity.
The formula is H = f² / (N × c) + f, where f is the focal length, N the aperture and c the circle of confusion: about 0.03 mm on full frame, 0.02 mm on APS-C.
In street photography the same idea is used with the focus fixed at 2–3 metres and the aperture stopped down. Ricoh GR cameras have a dedicated control for it, Snap Focus: on the GR IV you choose 0.3, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3.5 or 5 metres, or infinity. Fujifilm cameras show the depth-of-field scale when you focus manually; with Nikon, Canon and Sony you focus manually and check the distance on the indicator in the viewfinder, with lenses that report it.
Key points
- Focusing at infinity wastes depth of field: half of the sharp zone is lost.
- With the focus at the hyperfocal distance H, everything is sharp from H/2 to infinity.
- Short focal length and narrow aperture = a close hyperfocal distance. With a 24 mm at f/11 on full frame it’s about 1.8 m.
Try it yourself
With a wide-angle lens at f/11, focus manually at about 2 metres and photograph a landscape with something in the foreground one metre away. Zoom into the photo: the foreground and the horizon should both be sharp.
Post the result and tag me @enrico.marega, or send it to me by DM: I’d love to see how you tackled it.
Quick check
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