Where to Focus in Landscape Photography
Where should I focus when taking a Landscape Shot?
When shooting a normal landscape image it is normal to attempt to keep as much of the image in focus as possible.
This means selecting a small Aperture (remember the larger the number the smaller the actual Aperture) to ensure that you end up with a large depth of field. This will ensure that parts of the image that are both close and far away from you have a good chance of being somewhat in focus.
But at what point in the shot should you actually focus the image?
I suspect that many digital camera owners would set the focal point as the middle of the shot - or even at the horizon - however it might not actually be the ideal place to focus your camera.
I chatted this week with a landscape photographer who shared this tip:
‘Focus in the lower half of the image - at around the ‘thirdway’ point.’
Ok - I’m not sure if ‘thirdway‘ is an actual word - but what he was suggesting is that the point that will help you get the maximum amount of your shot in focus is at a point around a third of the way up an image (as highlighted above).
This is a fairly general rule and you’d want to ignore if if your landscape shot had a particular point of interest in it that wasn’t on the third line. However if your landscape shot doesn’t have one specific point of interest it is probably a rule worth using.
My photographer friend went on to give a rather complicated reasoning for focusing upon this point a third of the way into an image that I don’t wish to repeat here for fear of losing many - however, in general if you focus too far into your image you’ll end up with objects in the distance nice and sharp but anything close to you noticeably out of focus. If you focus at the lower third you increase the depth of field in the foreground and as depth of field extends further behind a focal point than in front of it the distant objects will be reasonably sharp too.
Disclaimer - I should say that in researching this technique I found a lot of debate on the topic and a lot of technical language - in actual fact this ‘rule’ depends on many factors including the focal length of your lens, the format you’re shooting in (vertical or horizontal), the aperture you’re using and how far the scene extends away from you.
However I’ve found it to be a useful ‘rule’ to know and to start with when shooting landscapes. Whether you focus exactly on the third way point probably doesn’t matter that much - however the key is not to focus on the horizon but closer to you as the photographer.
Perhaps it’s one of those ‘one percent’ rules that won’t make a lot of difference for most of us - but when you’re taking high level landscape shots it’s often the little things that count!
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September 6th, 2007 at 2:27 am
I recently spent quite some time reading up on hyperfocal length focussing. There was a lot of “pro” feeling, but one site I found was very “con”. It seems to come down to what you consider to be “acceptable focus” at infinity! If you focus on the horizon, then “infinity” should be sharp. If you focus at the hyper-focal length, you’ll get the best out of the image for foreground sharpness, for a much bigger aperture (lower f-stop). Why would that matter? Smaller apertures (bigger f-numbers) introduce the risk of diffraction affecting the image, which generally manifests as … a lack of sharpness. I’ve always used f22-is for landscapes, but in the Lake District recently, I took some corkers at f7.1 with a crisp foreground, and what appears to be crips horizon even when printed at A4. It’s very technical stuff, but really worthy of some more reading up.
Ash.
September 6th, 2007 at 5:31 am
This is a wery popular theme, so any practical experience is welcome. I was facing this question manytimes, but most of it at a close up pictures, where Depth Of Field is usualy so smal, that it is hard (to me even impossible) to get all the “stuf” sharp. While landscape photography is not so DOF sensitive (specialy using smal focal length lenses), sometimes i still use DOF calculators to help me determing the right spot of focus, and not DOF directly, as in such cases best “focus spot” is my goal. Ash, i am anxious to get more data, so your site address is very welcome. And BTW, this article is also great!
September 6th, 2007 at 5:58 am
This article really helps, i was always wondering where I should point my focus point to. thanks.
September 6th, 2007 at 7:34 am
I think it depends more on what the geography of the landscape snap is. For subjects like mountains, an infinity focus makes more sense. In terms of woodlands, I prefer to set the tone and focus depending on the lighting at the given moment. Even for grasslands, a lot depends on what you want to convey with the snap - the sense of openness of the plain, or use it as the foreground for a more interesting formation/structure in the photograph.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:43 am
knafland - if you mail me through my site “www.ashley-darby-photography.co.uk” I’ll forward you some hyperlinks to the sites I examined regarding hyperfocal length focussing.
Cheers,
Ash.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:44 am
Another consideration is to provide the camera’s auto-focus an area of enough contrast in the scene to work with. Sometimes the objects closer-in can work better than some blue sky, or hazy mountain range in the distance.
It’s important to note that the depth of field extends an equal amount on either side of the focal point. So having the focal point at infinity is a bit wasteful, as you only use 1/2 of the available depth range.
I hadn’t heard about the 1/3rd rule so far, but it seems pretty logical considering that most landscape shots usually have a horizon line somewhere between the middle and upper third. That’s where infinity is. For sake of argument let’s say it’s at the upper 1/3rd (i.e. 2/3rd landscape and 1/3rd sky). If you then want to put your focal point at 1/2 of the distance to optimally use your depth field, that would put you exactly at the bottom 1/3rd of the photo (on a flat/linear landscape of course).
If you further take a look and optimize for hyperfocal length by choosing the right aperture for your camera and lens, you could place the bottom most part of the image at the near end of your depth field and the entire image is sharp.
September 6th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
My understanding is that, given a smooth transition from foreground to background, this is a pretty good estimation of where the hyperfocal point would be. I will often use this approach with my D200 by setting the autofocus to a point below the center focal point. I think it worked well on this one.
http://i.pbase.com/g6/59/499759/2/82588823.GdWJXR1T
September 6th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
If youi have a lens with a focussing distance and aperture marking, it is better-still to switch off autofocussing, and focus manually at the correct distance calculated as the hypoerfocal legnth. Beware - it may appear blurred, but using the DOF preview button can help convince you that science has won out!!
September 6th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
DOFMaster.com has some good reading on this topic. It covers DOF charts and Hyperfocal Distance. It’s not rocket science. For those that are interested I’d recommend taking thirty minutes and educating themselves.
It boils down to this: with some simple charts that take into account circle of confusion(which is specific to a camera), focus distance, aperture and focal length you can easily arrange landscape photos that have virtually all the picture in focus assuming you have a lens that is wide enough. DOFMaster.com also has a link to a handy little free Palm aplication that will calculate DOF and hyperfocal distance based on your input.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Well, this all gives me something to work on this weekend. Thank you for all the info.
Gayle :)
September 7th, 2007 at 1:40 am
I did workshop with Lewis Kemper, one of Canon’s “Explorers of Light” outdoor photographers.
I asked him about hyperfocal distance and exactly this subject. Basically his advice to me is generally, if you pick a focus point, figure 1/3 of the distance in front and 2/3 behind will be acceptable. His other piece of advice was to look through the eyepiece with the DOF preview down for 30 seconds because sometimes it takes our eyes that long to adjust to the darkness.
So this may not be “what” to focus on but I guess if you think about framing, then you can decide “where” to focus?
September 7th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Great article!
I never gave any thought on where to focus for landscapes before. Thanks for the tip!
September 7th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
sometimes I use auto-aperture in my camera. knowing the correct aperture is hard for beginners and I choose a few points in the frame to be in-focus
September 7th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Thanks for this tip, didn’t think about it before, but it makes sense :)
September 10th, 2007 at 2:48 am
I guess the tip would make sense…as a general rule…
i have a further question though - at what part of the “thirdway” should focus be pointed at? middle? left ? right? object nearest you? farthest? midpoint?
September 10th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I’ve been reading about DoF and hyperfocal distance calculations and real use for a while and the 1/3 principle is certainly a good “rule of thumb” that will work in most circumstances. I also have DoF installed on my Pocket PC Ipaq 4700 and it works fine. Hint: for a Canon 30D set the resolution to 52.6 lines per mm and the results are more accurate.
September 15th, 2007 at 7:00 am
I was allways wondering about this…