Understanding the Concept of Hyperfocal Distance in Photography

Hyperfocal distance is one of the most important technical aspects of photography. It is the focusing distance that gives the photos with the greatest depth of field. It allows that photographer can focus objects at infinity that are acceptably sharp and infinity refer here to any distant object such as stars. It is most helpful in landscape photography where you want to keep a distant background sharp.

In landscape photography, you want that foreground and background appear to be sharp but there is one problem that if you focus on the background, the foreground will look out-of-focus. If you want that foreground and background should be acceptably sharp than you have to focus at a particular point between the foreground and background. Calculation of the hyperfocal distance is possible by using hyperfocal distance chart and hyperfocal distance equation. It includes focal length, aperture, f-number and circle of confusion.

When to use Hyperfocal Distance

It is a technique used for getting a sharp image. The main focus of this technique is to keep the background acceptably sharp in one shot. Hyperfocal distance calculation in photography is important because when your object both closer and at a distant position from your lens that needs to be acceptably sharp. If you want to focus on a particular subject or object in the photo than forget about the hyperfocal distance. This is not a tool for all occasions, it mainly focuses on the sharpness of the foreground than the background of the photo.

Factors that determine Hyperfocal Distance

Hyperfocal distance depends on the three factors are:

Aperture: Setting of the aperture is helpful in the determination of hyperfocal distance. If the aperture is smaller than the closer the hyperfocal distance.

Focal Length: Focal length affects the angle of view. The smaller the focal length, wider the angle of view than closer the hyperfocal distance.

Sensor Size: Size of your digital sensor is an important factor in determining the hyperfocal distance. Larher the digital sensor, closer the hyperfocal distance.

Focusing using Hyperfocal Distance

You can set your focus at the hyperfocal distance by using different ways. If you want to manually set the focus then switch your lens into manual focus mode and just twist the focus until it reaches the proper distance. There is a scale on the top of your lens but not in all lens. If the lens don’t have scale than you have to approximate by using the viewfinder. For example, if the focal length is 35mm at f/11 on a camera than the hyperfocal distance is 5.6meters.

Haythem Lafhaj Studios shares some information related to Hyperfocal Distance and clear some interesting concepts about this technique. This helps you to get an amazing photograph. I hope you like this article. Please share your views with us in the comment section.