Get Perfect Sharpness With Hyperfocal Distance

Matthew Richards explains how mastering the theory of hyperfocal distance enables you to capture optimum sharpness in landscapes

- Matthew Richards

1 HOUR Setting the focus distance of a lens to the hyperfocal distance will give you the optimum sharpness from infinity to the closest possible point in a scene. This makes it a popular option with landscape photographers, who will often want to retain sharpness in everything from foreground areas to the distant horizon.

Two principal factors of hyperfocal distance are the focal length of the lens and its aperture setting. With shorter focal lengths or zoom settings, the hyperfocal distance becomes shorter. You’ll therefore be able to get more foreground sharpness when using a wide-angle lens. The hyperfocal distance also decreases with narrower aperture settings, thanks to the larger depth of field.

Another factor that affects hyperfocal distance is the size of the image sensor. For any given focal length and aperture setting, a camera with an APS-C sensor will have a much shorter hyperfocal length than a full-frame model. Even after taking the 1.5x or 1.6x focal length multiplier, or crop factor, into account, an APS-C camera will still have a shorter hyperfocal distance. For example, using a 16mm lens on a full-frame body gives the same ‘effective’ focal length as using a 24mm lens on an full-frame body. Using both at an aperture setting of f/5.6, the hyperfocal distance would be 2.4m with a APS-C camera, but 3.5m on a full-frame model.