If you’ve been interested in photography for any length of time, especially landscape photography then you will have no doubt come across the term hyperfocal distance and its usefulness in obtaining maximum depth of field or front to back sharpness in any given photo.In simple and photographic terms, the hyperfocal distance is the focus distance of your lens when the nearest object in a scene remains acceptably sharp whilst still keeping everything in front of that all the way to infinity (or at least as far as you can see) acceptably sharp also. So you can see that for landscape photography, it’s very useful technique or method to have at your disposal to ensure as much of the scene is in focus as possible. Here’s how to achieve it easily with any lens.

If you do a search for this, the resulting tutorial will often bamboozle you with fairly complicated equations and inform you that the equations really only apply to a thin single element lens. They will also show you a method of setting your lens using the depth of field markers and focus scale on your lens. Unfortunately, your standard modern lens will be constructed with multiple lenses and more often than not doesn’t have the required depth of field scales and focus scales you need to achieve maximum an accurate hyperfocal distance.

If you really want to know the maths and physics behind the technique then look at this article on wikipedia. Of course, all of this information is interesting but of little use when you’re out and about wondering which f-stop to use and what to focus on to get your maximum depth of field. And then of course, all the numbers change depending on which type of camera you use. A full frame 35mm camera such as the Canon 5D will need different settings to a DSLR with a smaller sensor. What you need is a quick and easy reference tool that you can carry with you, so for that reason I have produced a set of cards that you can print out and carry in your wallet and at glance, know how to get the best depth of field for your camera.

All you need to know is the crop factor of your camera and choose the appropriate table from below, print it out and carry it with you. Even have it laminated if you like. Apart from 35mm film cameras and some full frame DSLR’s which don’t have a crop factor, the common crop factors are 1.3X, 1.5X, 1.6X, and 2X. if you don’t know which your DSLR is then a look at your manual or a quick search on Google should reveal the answer for you.

To use the table, decide on the focal length you want to use, then estimate the distance of the nearest object in your scene that you want to remain sharp. It’s better to underestimate than it is to overestimate.

Full Frame

Find that distance on the table (black numbers) and read up to see the aperture you should set. For example, using the table for full frame sensors above, I want to take a photo with lens set at 17mm and my nearest object is 2 metres away. The closest to that on the table without going over is 1.74 metres. Reading up I see that I need to set an aperture of f/5.6

That means in the resulting image, everything from half the focus distance to infinity will be acceptably sharp. In this case, because my nearest object that I want in focus is 2 metres away, my depth of field will be 1 metre to infinity. At f/5.6, I could in fact focus as close as 1.74 metres if I could measure it accurately and have depth of field from half of that (0.87 metres to infinity). But there would be little point in that since my closest object is 2 metres away and is well covered by by the initial aperture setting anyway. Of course if you are wanting a little extra security you could simply work out the appropriate aperture and stop down.

Using the same table above, you can also see that I could use a longer focal length e.g. 24mm but in that case I would have to set an aperture of f/11 to keep nearest object at 2 metres sharp. In fact I could go up to 35mm but then I would need an aperture of f/22. if I wanted to go to to 40mm or more then I’d have to rethink my strategy or move back a little.

The tables are probably more use for the shorter focal lengths i.e. up to about 40mm where it’s easier to estimate or even measure the distances if you want to but I’ve included a range up to 105mm just for completeness.

More tables and examples of use for different crop factors. remember to use the one for the crop factor of your DSLR otherwise your images are likely to be out of focus. To print, first right click on the table and save it.

x1.3 Crop Factor

This example uses the table above for cameras with 1.3x crop factor. Let’s assume the nearest object you want to keep sharp in your scene is 5 metres away. By looking at the table you can find any hyperfocal distance of 5 metres or less and use that focal length aperture combination, safe in the knowledge that your scene will be in focus from 2.5 metres to infinity. So using the table above you could use any aperture between f/2.8 and f/22 for the 17mm focal length. For a 24mm focal length you could use any aperture of f/5.6 to f/22. For 28mm focal length you could use f/8 to f/22 and so on. Even at 50mm you could use an aperture of f/22 if you really wanted to.

Now you may ask why bother having the choice of apertures if the depth of field is going to be the same. Well first of all, you can fine tune your settings to get objects even closer in focus but another big advantage is that you can set the appropriate aperture to allow for some change in shutter speed whilst still retaining the same depth of field.

 

x1.5 Crop Factor

Let’s use the table for 1.5x crop factor to show how you can achieve the same exposure and depth of field with varying shutter speeds which may be useful if yo want to get a blurred effect on waterfalls or maybe you want to freeze the motion of the water.

Assume the nearest object you want to keep sharp is 6 metres away. From the table, you could easily use 17mm focal length with a wide aperture of f/2.8 which would keep everything sharp and (light levels permitting) a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the motion of the water. Now in this example, you could go all the way to f/22 which would give a correspondingly slower shutter speed and more blurred effect on the waterfall. Alternatively, you might want to shoot at 24mm for a better composition. In this case you still have a choice of apertures between f/8 and f/22 which gives a range of shutter speeds to choose from. And remember, everything from half that distance (3 metres) will be acceptably sharp.

 

x1.6 Crop Factor

Let’s say you want to use f/8 or f/11 because that happens to be the aperture at which most lenses perform best. What is the closest object that will remain in focus. Using the 1.6x crop factor table look down the column under f/8 and you can see that for f/8 at 17mm, the hyperfocal distance is 1.95 metres. Focus to that distance and everything from half that (about 97 cm) to infinity will be sharp. For 35mm focal length the hyperfocal distance is 8.22 metres, set your focus distance to that and everything from 4.11 metres is sharp. Using this approach allows you to alter your composition if necessary to get all of the elements in a scene sharp and it takes away the guess work.

 

x2.0 Crop Factor

 

Happy shooting and I hope you find these tables useful!