Hyper Focal distance and landscapes - help my confusion!
Discussion
In an effort to improve my landscape shots ( nothing special, just practicing on various views locally rather than ones of the seven wonders of the world for now) I came across the term "hyper focus distance". There is loads about it online, and even apps to help work out this mysterious beast in the field. It sounds very geeky at the moment!
My initial understanding is that when you are looking across a sweeping valley, you have to select an arbitrary "subject" in the foreground, middle ground or background, estimate the distance to that subject, select your aperature (8, 11,16, 22 or whatever but watch the defraction issue with your lens) and focal length then use an app which you input all this data to give you another distance from you - the hyper focal spot - that you should focus on?
The difficulty I'm having is how on earth can you accurately measure in your head the distance to this arbitrary subject you select and then of course the distance to the hyper focus spot, especially if the landscape does not have anything to reference or scale off ? Surely this is just massive guess work?
To add to my confusion I then came across an article stating that it's a concept that is best ignored as it's just too difficult to do with any accuracy so you might as well just take a few different exposures with different focal points, apertures etc as insurance.
So, hyper focal distance. Is my understanding correct and it involves lots of estimation, apps etc and that it should definitely be used and honed as a skill set, or can it be ignored in favor of trial an error.
Does anybody here actually use hyper focal distance with any tips you can share please?
My initial understanding is that when you are looking across a sweeping valley, you have to select an arbitrary "subject" in the foreground, middle ground or background, estimate the distance to that subject, select your aperature (8, 11,16, 22 or whatever but watch the defraction issue with your lens) and focal length then use an app which you input all this data to give you another distance from you - the hyper focal spot - that you should focus on?
The difficulty I'm having is how on earth can you accurately measure in your head the distance to this arbitrary subject you select and then of course the distance to the hyper focus spot, especially if the landscape does not have anything to reference or scale off ? Surely this is just massive guess work?
To add to my confusion I then came across an article stating that it's a concept that is best ignored as it's just too difficult to do with any accuracy so you might as well just take a few different exposures with different focal points, apertures etc as insurance.
So, hyper focal distance. Is my understanding correct and it involves lots of estimation, apps etc and that it should definitely be used and honed as a skill set, or can it be ignored in favor of trial an error.
Does anybody here actually use hyper focal distance with any tips you can share please?
Thanks for the insight everybody, I'm going to take the view I need not learn about hyper focus distance in any detail from what has been said here.
I went out and took some shots today using different apertures and focal points for comparison. Have not looked at them yet but I guess practice is the best way to learn.
I'm delighted with the comments, I'm only on the beginner slopes of what is a steep learning curve, especially taking into account post processing as well. Having to apply complex maths would not have been welcome!
I went out and took some shots today using different apertures and focal points for comparison. Have not looked at them yet but I guess practice is the best way to learn.
I'm delighted with the comments, I'm only on the beginner slopes of what is a steep learning curve, especially taking into account post processing as well. Having to apply complex maths would not have been welcome!
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