I've just learned about the Hyperfocal Distance (HFD) "rule" and how it's useful for landscape photographers to keep the whole frame in focus - foreground and background.
In summary the HFD is a measure of the distance the closest an object can be to the camera and remain in focus for a given aperture and zoom when you are
focused to infinity. Italics are to make this point as it's important. The HFD ONLY comes into play when you focus to infinity.
With fast telephoto ranges the HFD can be measured in kilometers! So it's less useful there. However with wide lenses and small apertures you can decrease the HFD to mere centimeters.
For example, at 10mm / F11 the HFD is around 16cm. (I'll provide tables later.) This means everything from 16cm to infinity is in focus.
It's like the opposite of bokeh. You can use Bokeh creativly to help isolate "the subject" - good for portraits for example. HFD on the other hand, helps make the picture as a whole "the subject" - useful for landscapes
This is an example picture I took today trying to use the HFD rule.
Note the foreground sand & rocks are as much in focus as the lighthouse on the horizon.
Ok, to actually use the rule, follow these steps: -
Compose as normal and get plenty of foreground interest with an expanse of sky or mountains or whatever the landscape is.
Next set to manual focus and set it to the infinity mark on the lens. That's the one that looks like an 8
That's it
The only thing you have to be aware of is don't get any of your foreground within the HFD distance or it'll appear out of focus. I'm not sure if this distance is from the front of the lens or, more likely, the focus plane (the film/ccd itself).
I've said it's of interest to landscape togs. I've no idea if it has other applications - maybe someone more learned than myself can chime in there.
You can see the tables here (Full stops from 8mm to 20mm range) : -
Hyperfocal Distance Results - opcs - IT Services - http://www.askopcs.com/
Or you can download the calculator and make your own tables. Remember to virus scan this exe. It's fresh out of the oven but best to be safe. Just download and run - no installation required.
http://www.orangepeels.co.uk/tmp/Hyp...Calculator.exe
An interesting point to note is that some old disposable cameras that don't have a focus mechanism are actually set in the factory to focus to infinity. That means that the whole scene is in focus. Odd that we spend all this money on gear then try to emulate the effect of a £10 disposable camera