Landscapes - Hyperfocal Distances / 18-70 / What f stop?

[edneeves]

I am looking into Hyperfocal Focussing and Landscape photography, and it appears that setting the f stop to 22 isn't necessarily the best thing!!

This probably explains why all my landscapes seem rather soft. I was wondering what sweetspot f stop people currently use (on the kit lens) that gives crisp results?

Secondly I understand the concept of Hyperfocal Distances but I am not sure of how to get the minimum distance from it. Could someone enlighten me please

[Yi-P]

Take distance from your focal plane to the very first foreground object, that is, the first flower or rock. Make sure you are some metres away so that your hyperfocus can cover them all.

Set your camera on a tripod. I think you'd know this long before.

Use something between f/11-f/16, try not to go beyond f/16 as light starts to refract (soften sharpness).

And keep focal length low, shorter FL will have deeper DOF at same aperture as with longer FL.

[radar]

Ed,

have a look at:

http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html

you will be able to get charts that will cover what you need. I use their palm software so that when I'm in the field, I enter the info and it tells me the value to set on my lens to obtain the hyperfocal distance I want.

I tend not to go beyond f16 if I can help it but sometimes I can help to go to a smaller aperture so I'll put up with some softness. USM in PP will then usually help.

HTH,

André

[edneeves]

Ed,

have a look at:

http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html

Thats what I am looking for. However it seems that all the scales indicate the Hyperfocal Distance. I was wondering how you work out the minimum distance from this.

For example:

50mm lens, f16 Hyperfocal Distance = 17 feet

Is there a way of working out what the minimum distance would roughly be from this. I am aware that you get 1/3 in front of the Hyperfocal Distance in focus at a given f stop, can I use this to work out what the minimum distance would be or is it more complicated than that?

[the foto fanatic]

When the lens is focused on the hyperfocal distance, the depth of field extends from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity.

Photography, Phil Davis, 1972.

[edneeves]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

So all I do is devide the Hyperfocal Distance in half and I have the minimum focusing distance.

If I have that correct then that is very easy to remember!