![]() ![]() I typically use the data in the PhotoPills app on my phone when I need to check depth of field, but there are many other sources. Older lenses, and some new wide angles lenses, have these scales engraved in the barrel. We just don’t need it for this discussion. You can easily google enough depth of field equations to satisfy even the biggest photography math nerd. Whew! I can hear the collective sigh of relief. There are formulas to figure this all out but, you can put away those calculators: there’s no math involved in this article. We just need to know that, if you can figure out the right combination of lens, aperture and distance, you can get everything you want in reasonably sharp focus.Īnd that’s where the math comes in. You can learn more about depth of field here. It’s determined by your lens size, the aperture you select, and the distance your subject is from your camera. There are many complicated and technical definitions of depth of field but, for our purposes, it is the zone in front of and behind the point on which you focus (the plane of focus) where details are rendered acceptably sharp. The “focus 1/3 of the way into the scene” guideline was developed decades ago to help photographers maximize the depth of field in any given shot. ![]() The physics of light and lenses dictate that this zone of acceptable sharpness extends farther behind the plane of focus than in front of it. At some distance from the plane of focus, objects cease being acceptably sharp and become noticeably blurry. The farther an object is from the plane of focus, the more degraded the sharpness becomes. Objects slightly in front of or slightly behind the plane of focus will be a tiny bit less sharp. You can only really achieve perfect focus at one spot, or on a plane in which each element will be very well focused. But, if you’re out in the field and moving fast, it’s a great little trick to know! And there are photographers who argue that you should focus at infinity for maximum sharpness across the largest area of a shot. You may want a very shallow range of focus to isolate your subject against a blurred background. You may want to emphasize a foreground object and don’t care as much about the distant surroundings. This won’t work all the time, so use it thoughtfully. Focusing 1/3 of the way up the frame gives you the best chance to get a great image in a hurry. Or you’re trying to get a moving animal in its natural surroundings and you want maximize the zone of sharpness in your image. Maybe you’re chasing some great, but fleeting, light. This guideline can be handy when you’re trying to get the foreground, middle ground and far distance to all be sharp, but don’t have a lot of time to get the shot. In practice, this often can be approximated by placing your focus 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the image. In landscape photography, you’re often using wide angel lenses at medium to small apertures, trying to get everything tack sharp, from the foreground element that draws you into the scene and provides depth and scale to the distant objects that may be miles away.Īnsel Adams and other well-known photographers recommended placing the focus point about 1/3 of the way between the nearest object that you want to have in focus and the farthest object you want in focus. If you focus your camera 1/3 of the way into the scene, does that mean using the rule of thirds, 1/3 of the distance to the farthest object in the frame, 1/3 of the way from the top or bottom of the image, or something else? And does it involve math? In this article, we’ll explore what it means, where it came from, when it works and when it doesn’t, and whether digital technologies have made this technique obsolete. Like most guidelines, it doesn’t cover every situation and it’s open to interpretation. It’s one of the many guidelines about photography that have sprung up over time. If you’re a landscape photographer, you’ve probably had someone tell you to focus 1/3 of the way into the scene. ![]()
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