4.6 CAPTURING MAXIMUM DEPTH OF FIELD
 
 
 
 
 
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Many times when you are photographing you will want to get as much depth of field as possible because important parts of a scene are both near to and far from the camera, and you’ll want all of them to be sharp. Maximum depth of field seems particularly important for photographs of landscapes and other scenes where a distant horizon is a part of the picture.

When a subject extends to the far distance, many photographers unthinkingly focus on that part of the scene—or on infinity. Infinity in photographic terms, is an inclusive term that designates everything from about 40 ft. to as far as you—or the lens—can see. So when you are focused on infinity everything from that point and beyond will be sharp. But since one-third of the available depth of field falls in front of the point on which you are focused and two-thirds behind it, focusing on infinity wastes two-thirds of your depth of field because everything from the infinity point and beyond is going to be sharp anyway. That may mean that some other part of the scene in the foreground will not be included in the one-third remaining depth of field and consequently will not be sharp.

Instead of focusing on infinity, if you focus on some object one-third of the way between you and the horizon, you will have brought forward the point on which you are focused and so increased the depth of field in the foreground of your picture. This new point of focus is called the hyperfocal distance.

pikes peak.jpg (30294 bytes) Here a wide-angle lens was used with a small aperture to keep everything in the foreground and background in focus. The flowers are on Pike’s Peak, over 14,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

 

How To: Increasing Depth of Field
  • Photograph in bright sun so the aperture closes down.
  • Zoom the lens out to a wider angle of view.
  • Move farther away from the subject.
  • Switch to aperture priority mode and select a small aperture such as f/11. (See Topic 0-0.)

 

How To: Using Focus Lock for Maximum Depth of Field
  1. Point the camera so the area you want to focus on is in the focus area in the center of the viewfinder. In a landscape, pick something about one-third of the way between you and the horizon. For other scenes, pick something to focus on that’s one-third of the way back from the nearest point you want to be sharp.
  2. Press the shutter-release button down halfway and hold it there to lock in the focus.
  3. Recompose the scene and press the shutter-release button the rest of the way to take the picture.


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