12-07-2011, 08:08 PM
I have a variation on Harold Merklinger's suggestions. I call it Andy's rule and it's based on the number 13, as in Studor13.
It's very simple. For anything shorter than 35mm, focus on the furthest thing of interest, set the aperture to f13 and you are done. Everything from infinity down to about 1 meter will be fantastically in focus.
In fact, for 18mm or less on DX you could even use f8!
I have no idea why so many people are stuck on hyper focal and dof scales. The eye expects something at infinity to be in focus so when you use hyper focal, whatever is of interest at infinity will look soft. But when you set focus at infinity whatever is in the foreground still looks almost as good, but the human brain doesn't mind.
So remember, f13 and be there.
It's very simple. For anything shorter than 35mm, focus on the furthest thing of interest, set the aperture to f13 and you are done. Everything from infinity down to about 1 meter will be fantastically in focus.
In fact, for 18mm or less on DX you could even use f8!
I have no idea why so many people are stuck on hyper focal and dof scales. The eye expects something at infinity to be in focus so when you use hyper focal, whatever is of interest at infinity will look soft. But when you set focus at infinity whatever is in the foreground still looks almost as good, but the human brain doesn't mind.
So remember, f13 and be there.