Comments on: Real Estate Photography Basics: Focus, Exposure and White Balance

By: Al Bug Real Estate Photographer

Al Bug Real Estate Photographer — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:12:26 +0000

Thanks David

After shaveling the snow for one hour I find it hard to focus myself I will try tomorrow to read more and deepen your toughts.

Thanks again.

By: David

David — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:21:04 +0000

Al, for this purpose, you want to use the real, not the effective, focal length. Anyway, when you are talking about focal lengths this short, the depth of field is so great, even at wider apertures, that you don’t have to be very precise with setting the hyperfocal distance, at least for non-critical work, that is not at close range, such as pfre. If you do want to be very precise with hyperfocal distance, you do need to calculate it for many zoom lenses, which really cannot provide full depth-of-field scales for all focal lengths and apertures. And, hyperfocal distance for any given aperture and focal length will depend on the viewing conditions, i.e. degree of enlargement and viewing distance. Most depth of field scales use a reference of an 8 x 10 print I believe. Read up on circles of confusion.

By the way, there is only one plane of truly sharp focus. For pfre we do not have areas of a scene that are closer than about 3-4 feet, and those things do not often have to be in ultrasharp focus. So, even if, technically, the hyperfocal distance is, say, 2 feet, you still want to set the focus point further away for maximum sharpness.

By: Al Bug Toronto Photographer

Al Bug Toronto Photographer — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:55:35 +0000

@Larry – I set the lens to 12mm but because D90 is not a full frame camera I end up with 18mm so I’ve put in the calculator the 18mm … should I put 12mm in the calculator and find out what’s the HFF for 12mm?

Thanks for ur reply

By: larry

larry — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:46:59 +0000

@Al- When your lens has a distance scale on it you don’t need to calculate the hyperfocal distance, you just use the scale. Set it from 2′ to infinity and you are set. The reason your calculation is off may be you should be using 12 as the focal length instead of 18… I don’t think the sensor size has an effect on the hyperfocal length.

By: Al Bug

Al Bug — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:08:49 +0000

Regarding hyper-focal focus, I’ve read all I could find and now I think I have a good understanding of it … I’ve also calculated the hyper-focal focus for my lens which is a Tokina 12-24 F4, and what I’ve found is that when I’m in 12mm equivalent to 18mm on my D90, I should set the focus at 2.89 … but I’m not sure how to find where 2.89 is … if you search for a Tokina 12-24 image you will see that the focus is 2 and then infinite … so where is 2.89?

By: larry

larry — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:27:43 +0000

@Ed- Thanks for pointing that out. It’s fixed now.

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:12:32 +0000

Hey Larry, I click on your link in your post to turn off autofocus and it takes me to a login page. Just checking to make sure the link is right, thanks for this great post!

By: Office space in Orange County

Office space in Orange County — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:28:57 +0000

Hi, interesting post. You have made an awesome attempt and is doing consistanty good.

Thanks

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:57:45 +0000

Larry great basic tips we always need to review from time to time!

Here is another depth of field scale I’ve been using for years at http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html. I find it very easy to use.

I always photograph using JPG + RAW. The JPG I use only for quick viewing and editing.
Also I find when I use my Sony A300 in live view mode, the system uses many more WB sensors than it does in the optical view mode so I get very good results with AWB. When I need to make finer adjustments I can see the K degrees changes very quickly while viewing the flip up LCD screen. Another advantage with the live view mode is it reduces back aches from having not to bend down so often to look through the eyepiece. I find it easier to lin up the verticals too. When the camera is on the PAP, I can tilt the LCD down and use the it to line up the shot. Then I use a Cactus RF shutter release to take the picture. This works very well for up to about 12-14 feet.

By: KH

KH — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:34:48 +0000

Found this cool site where you can generate your own hyperfocal distance chart

http://www.johnhendry.com/gadget/hf.php