Landscape Photography - technique

[phil1066]

After some advice from all the landscape buffs (or boffs) out there.

I came across an article recently that talked about only focusing two thirds of the way into the frame to get the best depth of field to include stuff in the forground. think it was called hyperfocal distance or something.

Firstly does this resonate with photographers here in terms of being a sound technique, and secondly is this good in practice?

[JamesC]

When all lenses had a depth of field scale you could use this in conjunction with the focus marks to set the depth of field without looking through the lens. Pick up an old lens and you should see this - there is usually a red mark where infinity focuses and on either side the aperture marks which increase as they get farther away. F22 or F32 is usually farthest away and gives maximum depth of field. Wherever you set the focus for a given aperture the markings will tell you what is in focus - say 2 feet to infinity. This was called hyperfocal focussing.
Nowadays few lenses have this so it's a bit trickier to guage exactly how far focus extends. Depth of field preview helps if your camera has it by stopping down the lens so you can see visually what's in focus though the viewfinder gets a bit dim. A quick and easy way to get good depth of field is to focus one third of the way into a scene - set a small aperture and voila. Since wideangle lenses have a greater inherent depth of field they are perfectly suited to landscape photography. One third into the scene is used as depth of field extends farther behind focus than it does towards the camera.
Including subject matter in the foreground is good as it leads the viewers eye into the image - lanes, track, roads and paths also have this effect.
A telephoto lens is also handy for landscape photos as you can isolate small parts of a scene or compress distant hills or trees together. It's not always necessary to go for a grand vista all the time.
One of the most useful tools for landscape photography is prior knowledge of a location and you return whenever the weather or time of day is most suitable. I often do this and sometimes don't have to travel very far to get a shot.
BTW as stated elsewhere it's not always best policy to set the smallest aperture you have as a lens performs at it's poorest at either end of the aperture range. I usually go for f16 as a limit.

[JamesC]

The idea of focussing a third of the distance into a scene is only a general guide - many other factors will need to be taken into account as each angle, camera, lens and scene is different. But it's not a good idea to just focus on infinity and set a small aperture as you are effectively wasting depth of field which exists beyond the infinity point.
This might not fully answer your query but I've waffled on long enough .

[mxbuck]

That's an excellent explanation and tutorial, James. Material for a mag article.

[phil1066]

Thanks James thats of great help mate - nicely explained  - even I understand it 

Its a technique I will try and remember to employ.

[mxbuck]

Hi everyone,
  I came across a tutorial on hyperfocal points and DoF that had a link to a free Depth of Field Chart program. It will produce a chart for any focal length lens, aperture and "circle of confusion"  (diffraction limit) that you want. The default CoC is about 0.03mm - typical for a 35mm film cam.

Here's the URL which has a download link on it:
 http://www.dofmaster.com/charts.html

Have fun!