Everything in Focus?

[JoseRivera]

Im wondering how I can manually set the lens focus to get everything in focus. I was looking at the news and saw a photographer, he was behind a crowd of people and raised his camera over the crowd to take pictures of someone in the middle. Then became the question what setting he was using to be sure that his pictures will be in focus? He may be using AF but with the camera in that position it was impossible to select point to focus. Is there any specific setting to have everything in focus and sharp?. I know that in landscape photography photographers use the concept of hyper focal distance referring to the focus distance where everything from half the distance of the hyper-focal-distance to infinity is in focus but Is different when taking lots of pictures of people moving around like this magazines and newspapers photographers does. Any Idea????

[SusanH1970]

Closing down your aperture will give you a deeper depth of field, so more will be in focus. Hope this helps.

[OsmosisStudios]

It would be greatly beneficial to actually get a Tilt-Shift or Perspective Control lens as these allow for some extreme manipulations of DoF.

[sk66]

Originally Posted by JoseRivera

Im wondering how I can manually set the lens focus to get everything in focus. I was looking at the news and saw a photographer, he was behind a crowd of people and raised his camera over the crowd to take pictures of someone in the middle. Then became the question what setting he was using to be sure that his pictures will be in focus? He may be using AF but with the camera in that position it was impossible to select point to focus. Is there any specific setting to have everything in focus and sharp?. I know that in landscape photography photographers use the concept of hyper focal distance referring to the focus distance where everything from half the distance of the hyper-focal-distance to infinity is in focus but Is different when taking lots of pictures of people moving around like this magazines and newspapers photographers does. Any Idea????

Why would hyper focal distance be any different? It has nothing to do with "what" is captured.

But generally, as you gain experience you can safely "ballpark" a manual setting. I would generally set an f-stop around f/8-f/11 and set the focus to 1/3 the scene depth. If I don't want infinite DOF.

DOF is almost always 1/3 in front and 2/3 behind the focus point. (other than hyperfocal)

[sk66]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

It would be greatly beneficial to actually get a Tilt-Shift or Perspective Control lens as these allow for some extreme manipulations of DoF.

?
How so? I've owned PC lenses and I've never been aware of any special DOF abilities...Did I miss something?

[RichardTaylor]

It is really simple.
If using a wide angle lens, and a lot of them are, you have huge amounts of DOF even at fairly close distances and relatively wide apertures, especially if it is not going to be a full size spread.

Example:
Available light, hand held. Centre focus point only active, one shot autofocus. The camera probably focussed on the distant rail about 8 feet (2.4M away). According to DOF master( Online Depth of Field Calculator ) every thing would be in focus from arms length to infinity.
If there was any doubt I would focus manually before raising the camera.

Example:


Camera: Canon EOS 40D + Tokina 12-24mm F4 lens
Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 12 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

Available light hand held.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by sk66

?
How so? I've owned PC lenses and I've never been aware of any special DOF abilities...Did I miss something?

You've never used the lens for landscape work, using the mechanism to skew the image plane? Man, you're in for a TREAT.

[Tito87]

f-stop (f-16,f-22,etc,). You get the idea.

[sk66]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

You've never used the lens for landscape work, using the mechanism to skew the image plane? Man, you're in for a TREAT.

Nope, architecture and detail work....
I don't have one now...what's the deal?

[OsmosisStudios]

By skewing the image plane somewhat, you get either a greater or lesser amount of a scene in focus. It alters how the light is bounced aorund in the lens, giving more or less distance for certain areas of a scene.

It's all very complex, but it works to either getting EVERYTHING in focus, or getting VERY LITTLE in focus.