landscape photos- focusing 1/3 of the way in.

[azpix]

i always hear that you should focus 1/3 of the the way in on landscape photos as a rule of thumb. doe that mean that in landscape orietation, i should change the focus point to my very bottom focus point which i estimate to be just shy of 1/3 of the way in the frame?

am i way oversimplifying this or am I missing something?

[DunnoWhen]

No, not at all.

You should read up on "Depth Of Field" and then go and use this calculator (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html)to familiarize yourself.:)

[DarenM]

When they say 1/3 of the way in, they mean 1/3 into the scene....in otherwords..do not focus on the objects in the forefront of the scene, focus on the objects 1/3 back from the front objects. Also...ditto on dunnoWhen comments, read up on Depth of Field

[argyle]

That's an old rule of thumb that only applies at certain focal lengths and only in certain conditions. I'd steer clear of it. All serious landscape shooters use hyperfocal distance to attain the sharpest image possible. There's an on-going thread in this forum on this very topic...you should give it a read.

[azpix]

thanks all No, not at all.

You should read up on "Depth Of Field" and then go and use this calculator (http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html)to familiarize yourself.:)

interesting info.

That's an old rule of thumb that only applies at certain focal lengths and only in certain conditions. I'd steer clear of it. All serious landscape shooters use hyperfocal distance to attain the sharpest image possible. There's an on-going thread in this forum on this very topic...you should give it a read.

would happen to have a link to the thread or know the title name.

[WaltA]

thanks all

interesting info.



would happen to have a link to the thread or know the title name.

2 lines down from this one

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=713119

[azpix]

thanks all.

the HFD is a totally new concept for me and I've started reading the suggested material. one question though, with HFD does it matter which focus point you have your camera on?

[jrader]

thanks all.

the HFD is a totally new concept for me and I've started reading the suggested material. one question though, with HFD does it matter which focus point you have your camera on?
Not particularly, as long as it's on an object that is at or near the HFD for the particular shot you are taking. I would think your best bet is to manually focus the shot anyway (you are using a tripod, right?).

Best of luck.

John

[azpix]

Not particularly, as long as it's on an object that is at or near the HFD for the particular shot you are taking. I would think your best bet is to manually focus the shot anyway (you are using a tripod, right?).

Best of luck.

John


tripod yes.

[argyle]

thanks all.

the HFD is a totally new concept for me and I've started reading the suggested material. one question though, with HFD does it matter which focus point you have your camera on?

Not really...as John has mentioned as long as you're set on the object at/near the HFD. That being said, I tend to rely on the center focus point and recompose if necessary. Since I have the focus set to the star button, I can recompose after getting my focus without having to worry about the focus changing when I press the shutter (at least when I was shooting with my 5D). Now that I'm using the 5D2, I tend to mostly use the Live View function at 10x...I simply use the joystick to scroll to the object of focus and lock it in, either with AF or MF. Since your 40D also has this feature, that's what I'd suggest.