Hyperfocal Distance And What It Means To You

Want the greatest possible depth-of-field in your photographs? Want both near and distant objects to be appear sharp?

Here's how to do it. Just set your lens to it's hyperfocal distance, and everything from half that distance to infinity will be in focus.

How do you know what the hyperfocal distance for your lens is? If your lens has a depth-of-field scale on the focusing ring, just set the infinity mark opposite the number of the aperture that your lens is set to, and you're done.

Some lenses don't have numbers on the depth-of-field scale, but do have colored marks that correspond to the colors of the apertures shown on the aperture scale. Just set the infinity mark opposite the mark that's the same color as the number of the aperture that the lens is set to.

Don't refocus your lens after doing this - just point and shoot, and you'll have maximum depth-of-field in your photograph.

If you have a fixed-focus lens on your camera, it's already set to the hyerfocal distance - you don't need to do anything (and can't, anyway).