Hyperfocal Distance - Double The Distance Method Explained
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 9. 05. 2019
- In this video, we go over Hyperfocal Distance, how it works and how a simple "Double-the-Distance Method" can simplify the process of focusing in the field in order to get everything in your scene as sharp as possible.
~Spencer
/ spencercoxphoto
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Here is all the photo equipment I use: bhpho.to/3XUv32a
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#LandscapePhotography
Like many other photographers, I've downloaded hyperfocal distance charts to my phone. Have I ever used them in the field...? Nope. I've also used the 'focus a third into the image' method, but your explanation here is so simple and effective that I'm surprised I've not come across it before. Thanks for another great video. Your delivery technique and straightforward explanations are a breath of fresh air. Thanks for all the effort you put in to help us.
I calculated a hyperfocal distance that delivered a result outside the narrow depth of field of a telephoto lense. Is this calculated distance real or just an artifact?
Watched three videos explaining the same thing and this was BY FAR the best. Thank you!
Yeah.. even I felt the same
Smart,short and concise with a soothing voice without the need to pose hip and super fun and fast talk. Thank you,I loved it.
Thanks, Carmen! Iâm not so hip in real life, so why pretend for a video đ
Iâve read and read and watched and watched, havenât found a single tutorial thatâs as clear as this - thank you! đ
Much appreciated!
Your explanation for hyper focal is the best I have ever seen on youtube. Bravo. This is exactly how I do my focus in landscape.
There is so much conflicting advice available on how to achieve sharp photos from just in front of the camera to infinity, your straight forward and simple advice was like a breath of fresh air! Thank you so much Spencer, extremely helpful, useful and practical advice. Alun
Very glad to hear it! I think a lot of videos overcomplicate it with hyperfocal charts and calculations. Double the distance is easy and actually more accurate than the other methods.
You sound like a bright young man. Well done and keep at it.
You make hyperfocal very simple and easy to work in the field. I always focus a third into the image when I need to be on hyperfocal, but I will change for this method. Your explanations are very clear. Thank you, you are an excellent teacher and photographer!
Thank you, France, happy you found it useful!
This was an absolutely brilliant informative video; thanks for a fabulous upload. I learned loads and really enjoyed it.
I am so happy you made this video. I loved the article you wrote a while back and this video is icing on the cake.
Thank you, Michael! Glad to hear you liked it. Hyperfocal distance is so valuable for landscape photographers, and the DTD method means itâs not as difficult as some tutorials make it appear.
OUTSTANDING. Thanks for taking this complicated subject and making it easy to understand and apply. I have watched dozens of videos on this topic and yours was way superior to them. Thank you
Cheers Spencer for taking time to create this video and upload it, I found it very useful indeed.
Great, instructive video. No math or in-the-field calculations required. More effective than all the other videos I viewed, with reference to this subject. Thank you đ.
Love the simple explanation! Crystal clear! Thanks
One of the best video about hyper focal distance to understand. Very well explained. Hats off
This is fantastic explanation on focusing. I like the double the distance focus method. Thanks
Well done young man, you're smart and a great teacher
I'm impressed that you can walk on uneven ground while talking and holding a selfie stick! Thanks for the great info.
Sensible and practical: you win! đ
So much to learn and this video was great!!
this was really so helpful. I have given up on hyperlocal distance before, but now i feel like i get it!
Thank you for your easy explanation, I've been trying to figure out hyperfocal distance, I've come from macro photography to now attempting landscapes, but for some reason couldn't get it right. After watching this I went in to my back garden, put an object on the edge of a paving slab, stepped 2 paving slabs back and focused on the edge of a paving slab 2 past the object, nailed the shot 1st go, I now need to go out and try in the field. Once again thank you.
This was more than useful, thank you!
Great job explaining, I learned a lot
Thank you, thatâs very straight forward. I shall try your method đ€
Excellent instruction. Thank you đ
Informative and well-spoken. Nice job.
Beautifully described, thank you.
Great video, thanks for your sharing!!
Great explanation. Thank you.
I have already tried many things but I did not know that it is so easy and works. Thank you for that and greetings from Germany
Excellent explanation - thanks very much!
Brilliant, simple explanation - thank you
Thanks for the simple yet great explanation.
You do make very good tutorials, thanks!
Bloody brilliant. Thanks from North Yorkshire England. Fabulous well explained tutorial.
I like this guy. Very simple method I can understand. Thank you.
brilliant well said and demonstrated
Wonderful explanation!
best explanation I have seen to date
Thank you for this. You explained well and it was easy to follow. I am going to use this method.
I too am new to this amazingly simple concept, and I'm most grateful. Anything that makes life easier is really welcome.
Itâs remarkable to me that such a useful, simple, and mathematically accurate technique hasnât caught on very much yet! Hopefully it will soon. Glad we could introduce you to it.
That's all I needed to understand, Focus at double the distance of yr closest subject, Stop down & shoot! cheers mate!
Well explained......... I will apply this to my passion
Thanks for the great explanation! I've been trying to wrap my head around this all day in preparation for Chile next week!
Happy to hear it, Ryan. Have fun in Chile, and keep the Double the Distance method in mind when you need to maximize depth of field!
Thanks a bunch!! Excellent video and simple, easy to use methodology. I will definitely be trying this out.
Sure thing! Yeah, itâs strange how this method is easy to use and mathematically optimal, but so rarely talked about.
Great explanation. Iâm certainly impressed by your delivery.
Much appreciated, Darrien!
Excellent explanation of this concept and how to put it into practice.
Thanks, Mac, glad you liked it!
Hello There, Very clear explanation! Thanks a lot! God bless you all!
Very useful info as always. Thanks
Glad you liked it, thanks!
Great video! Thanks for explaining this so simply...
Sure thing! Glad it could be of use.
well done! thanks!
Thanks. I've just experimented outside my home and it worked pretty well. I'm going to try it on a street photography session
Thanks for a very educative video.
Useful video, thanks
Great video and you made it so simple. My head was spinning when I was reading about hyperfocal distance and the calculators and the circle of confusion. Going to try out what you said
Awesome! Glad to hear it. Itâs amazing to me how much this subject has been overcomplicated. Admittedly, picking the perfect aperture can take some practice, but the actual focusing component is so simple.
Clear and simple. Thank you! Love the Dodge and burn t-shirt :)
Thanks! Itâs my favorite shirt đ
very useful...thank you...
Excellent explanation and great tips. Bravo.
Very glad you liked it, thanks, Christopher!
Very helpful, very practical! Thank you!
Sure thing! Glad it was useful.
Thank you for making this so clear, and keeping it short, which is all the explaination needs to be! #nowsubscribed
I teach photography in my local community, and this is definitely the way to do most landscape photography with a wide angle lens. Definitely you can even use it with zoom lenses as well. It will work I see so many people who would focus on the mountain thinking that everything in the foreground would then be sharp as well, but it doesn't work like that. In fact, you get the opposite with a very soft image.
Super explanation
Simple explanation to understand,thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Such a good straight forward explanation, totally in line with yr the articles on PL.
I also like yr explanation regarding the lens quality influence, it really made the video complete.
btw I often wonder why so few landscape photographers use prime lenses to reduce this edge unsharpness.
Very well done.
Maybe because landscape shooters are hiking to nice locations and they don't want to carry 3 or 4 (or more) lenses vs 2? I personally find myself wanting every lens I own when I'm out shooting, just incase I need it. And my bag is really heavy.
Glad you liked it, Hans, thanks! Iâm definitely among those who have gravitated away from primes recently (used to shoot an all-prime kit) so Iâll try to answer your question. For me, there is a point at which image quality is not what holds a photo back. The 14-24mm f/2.8 does not have perfect image quality, but even at its worst it is not going to be distracting (even to a photographerâs critical eye). The 200% view in the video is quite exaggerated. (Wide angle lenses are also just super hard to design; Iâve only seen one 14mm prime with better image quality than this zoom, having tested 7 by my count from various manufacturers.)
Donât get me wrong - primes ARE better than similarly priced zooms in image quality, at least in the vast majority of cases. But zooms also weigh less because they replace several primes, and if their image quality doesnât take away from the photo even in a large print (my personal threshold), they win out overall.
@@PhotographyLifeChannel ...And image which moves us are not necessarily related to the perfect technique...in the contrary, sometimes a bit of imperfection makes the work more human...altough I really know pretty well my craft and that I always want to learn more and more, I do not want to become a technique freak...I want to be touched when I take my photo and to offer that...
Great presentation !!! Very clear.
Much appreciated!
You have just explained it to this newbie better than anyone has. NOW I don't feel so dumb. I'm doing a diploma and this has not been explained at all like this. Bless you. x I have subbed.
So happy to hear it! Welcome to the channel, and thatâs awesome, good luck on your degree!
well explained, i found it helpful, thank you
Glad it was helpful!
value đđŒ thank you for this. now need to practice
Good luck! Glad you enjoyed it!
Well explained sir.đđ
Thanks for letting me understand this in less than 10 minutes! Great explanation!
Jamie This is false.
It doesnât work that way. Hyper focal distance depends on the size of aperture also. You canât focus on the same point (per your doubling distance rule) on different aperture to get the crisp picture.
@@Notaphily I get that you'll need a certain aperture, as wide open would only give you a rather shallow dOf in any case.
The way I understood it is that it's comparable to zone focus as in you have a certain depth of field in which subjects remain acceptably sharp and you try to move this zone to a point where it includes both your nearest and your furthest subject.
Am I mistaken?
Jamie, youâre correct - the other commenter is misunderstanding the video. I never said that aperture is irrelevant. Certainly shooting at f/1.4 for a landscape will give you a blurry result in both the foreground and background! What the double the distance method does, which is critical, is EQUALIZE foreground and background sharpness. If your goal is maximum depth of field, thatâs exactly what youâd want most of the time. DTD equalizes foreground and background sharpness *even at* super wide apertures, for what itâs worth - though at those apertures, âequalizingâ doesnât mean much because theyâre both extremely blurry. So, you still need to pick a good aperture for your shot (probably f/8-11 on average, when shooting full frame) if you want maximum depth of field without extreme levels of diffraction. But as far as focus point, DTD is the way to go if you want your foreground and background equal in sharpness.
Very well explained!
Glad you thought so, thanks!
Good stuff
Thanks Spencer!
You are quite welcome!
Thanks for the video. How do you determine the aperture?
Definitely the easiest explanation I've come across. Now I need to learn what apertures etc to use for specific photography subjects. It does seem to be a trend for people saying that around F11 is the best for landscape? Why? Landscape is mostly my subject.
Thanks again!
Thanks Andrew! This video might answer your questions:
czcams.com/video/ZXLm7-EkYSI/video.html
@@PhotographyLifeChannel thanks! Very informative! Just getting into DSLR (Canon APS-C) and trying to learn as much as I can. Always got decent pictures on our road trips with my Canon SX using manual settings and auto focus, along with my GoPro and my phone but hoping to step it up a notch!
Thanks again!
wonderful and simple explanation
Much appreciated!!
Well presented as always. I am wondering what focus mode you are using for your landscape. I am shooting with a Nikon Z7. Thank you.
If people have trouble estimating the distance to the focus point, they can use a laser distance measurer. They are easy to use.
Awesome
Nice job.
Great explanation!
Thank you!
This video is so useful. Thanks for investing the time and effort.
Sure thing, Brian! Thanks for the feedback :)
Nailed it dude, ever since I started learning photography.
Portraits - 1.4
Landscape - F11
Complete BS. Nailed a landscape today, 1.4 @ 24mm
Can I see that photo somewhere?
Normally, what I do is.... Set to manual focus, turn the lens focus ring to infinity (â), zoom in live view to make sure both foreground and backgrounds are in focus then release the shutter. This is in aperture priority mode since I already know my preferred lens is perfectly sharp at f/8 with a wide enough DoF. However, your method should work perfectly fine, especially if you have the PhotoPills app to calculate the hyperfocal distance (for visual confirmation). I'll definitely try this method during the weekend. Thanks for the video :)
Complimenti. Grazie
Thank you for explaining that. I have asked other vloggers and never got an answer.
Awesome, glad to hear it was useful!
Does the same apply to other types of photography? Like food, for example
The Photopills app is pretty much the industry standard for dof calculations. It does a lot more besides. Great value for what it does.
To be honest, I've tried the calculators and such and have had the best luck (if I need most or all of the the scene in focus) doing focus stacking instead. Yes, it's a bit more work in post, but in general, I've had fewer issues, and part of this is because I can keep the lens at something like f/8 or f/11, which many lenses are most sharp at those apertures anyway. Now I'm not into the roundtable debates about never shooting beyond f/16 or at f/22 but I do like to shoot at the sharpest apertures possible, and I think that focus stacking, while a bit more work, gives you this benefit while still getting sharp photos.
Focus stacking is absolutely the best option if it works for your scene! Not always possible, especially if your subject is moving, of course. But when it works, itâs a great technique.
f/16 and f/22 does look not great tho.
A very helpful video that does not seem to get all the credit it deserves. Should perhaps be followed up with a video about field curvature, which can also impact image sharpness depending on where you focus quite a bit.
Newbie question: If I use a small aperture, say f16 to take landscape photos, then I wouldn't need to worry about the hyperfocal distance?
Very beautifuly explained. I loved it. Can i have the image u shown in the video. Or if possible can u show the focus point in the image. ?
Thank you, glad you liked it! I donât have the RAW image available for download right now, but Iâll let you know - I think we will add it to the main Photography Life website before too long. The focus point is at the very front of the island, the closest part of it to me (far left side of the island).
How does this method take the aperture in account?
Nice video, young man.
Thank you, Tanweer!
Brill đđ»
Another great video. What focus area setting did you use?
I usually stick to single-point and AF-S for landscapes. I donât like the imprecision of the larger area modes, and donât need tracking or anything like that for 99% of landscapes.
Hello, If I adapt a Nikon 35mm lens onto my Fuji X-Pro 1, will that affect hyperfocal focusing? I am using a Novotron lens adapter. Thank you ? Great videos. Thank you.
Using the doubling method described in the video I don't think it will matter if you have the manual lens and adapter set-up. I've read that that set up can sometimes mean you lose infinity focus. Experiment to find out what works
Such a simple technique but is so effective. Thank you for sharing this.
Glad you liked it!
Smiff This is false.
It doesnât work that way. Hyper focal distance depends on the size of aperture also. You canât focus on the same point (per your doubling distance rule) on different aperture to get the crisp picture.
à€à„à€Čà„ à€à€Ÿà€źà€°à„à€Ąà€Œ (Given that you copy-pasted this comment from earlier, I will copy-paste my response): No, this video is correct. Even if youâre at f/1.4 with very shallow depth of field, focusing at double-the-distance will EQUALIZE foreground and background sharpness. Itâs 100% true that the final sharpness of your photo also depends on your aperture, so youâre correct in that regard. But step one is focusing at the point that maximizes total depth of field regardless of your aperture. Only after that do you select an aperture like f/8, f/11, etc., that gives you as much depth of field as possible without running into excessive diffraction. In fact there is a mathematically accurate way to determine *which* aperture is the best compromise between diffraction and depth of field at this point, but explaining it went way beyond the scope of this video - you can read about it here if you want: photographylife.com/how-to-choose-the-sharpest-aperture - once youâve read and understand that, if you disagree with any of the math related to the DTD method or choosing the sharpest aperture, Iâll update the video, but it just wonât happen, because all the information here is correct.
Photography Life it didnât work for me. Idk
à€à„à€Čà„ à€à€Ÿà€źà€°à„à€Ąà€Œ Not sure why that would be. Was the foreground too blurry, or the background? If it was both, you arenât using a small enough aperture. If it was either the foreground or background, you arenât focused on the DTD point and are either too far back or front focused.
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