One trick to sharp photos from from to back

One simple trick can dramatically improve your landscape shots ensuring everything from foreground to background is in sharp focus.

Today, I’m going to show you how one simple trick can dramatically improve your landscape shots by maximizing depth of field and ensuring everything from foreground to background is in sharp focus.

Hi, I’m Rich Dyson, from Edinburgh Photography Workshop. Welcome to Coffee Break Photography. If you’re looking to get sharper, more professional-looking images with less hassle, then understanding and using the technique I am going to show you is a game-changer for your landscape photography—and even other genres.

Now, lots of photographers have traditionally used a technique where they focus roughly a third of the way into the scene. The idea is that focusing at about one-third from the foreground often results in a good depth of field for many shots. It’s a quick mental shortcut that works reasonably well in some situations, especially when the foreground isn’t too close.

This principle usually works because of how depth of field works. The definition of the depth of field is the area around the focus point which is acceptably sharp. I like to use an app called Photopills to demonstrate this. If I set my aperture to, say, F11 using the widest angle of my 24-70 millimetres lens and I focus 15 meters away, you can see that the depth of field covers a distance from 1.52 metres all the way to infinity. That’s perfect for most landscape photos, we have sharpness pretty much from front to back.

But what happens if there's something very close to the camera?

I have this interesting pool less than a meter away from the camera. When you focus one-third into the scene, that puddle and everything around it might end up being blurred, because it is closer than the depth of field’s near focus limit.

Let’s give it a try. I focus one-third into this scene here. The bridge and the opposite side of the river look crisp, but look at the foreground—those rocks are actually blurry because they are outside the depth of field.

That’s where something called the hyperfocal distance comes into its own. So, what exactly is the hyperfocal distance? In simple terms, it’s the distance at which you can focus and still have everything from half the distance in front of the focus point all the way to infinity appear sharp in your photo. It’s a useful concept that helps you maximize your depth of field without having to stop down to tiny apertures or guess where to focus each time.

Using hyperfocal focusing removes the guesswork, especially when your scene includes objects very close to the lens. It helps you get maximum sharpness across the entire scene in a reliable and straightforward way—perfect for landscape, cityscape, or architecture photography.

Now there is a quite complicated equation to calculate the hyperfocal distance. Here’s a simple explanation from 1906… I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy taking out a calculator, paper and pens out on a landscape expedition. Fortunately, there is an easier way to calculate the hyperfocal distance on the Photopills App.

Let’s now see how to calculate the hyperfocal distance in practice. I’ll show you the process step-by-step. To do this, we need just two things: your focal length and your aperture.

I’ll keep the focal length at 24 millimetres and the aperture at f/11. Using the hyperfocal table, I find that the hyperfocal distance for this setup is approximately 1.72 meters.

If I focus precisely at that distance, when I press the shutter, everything from 86 centimetres out to infinity should be sharp.

Let’s come back to our scene with the pool in front of the bridge. I’ll focus on this area which is about 1.72 metres away and I’ll take the shot. You can see the foreground area is just as sharp as the rest of the scene – perfect!

This technique ensures that both the foreground and the background are crisp and well-defined, giving your landscape images that professional finish.

Remember, you don’t need to memorise the hyperfocal distances for every aperture and focal length—using apps like Photopills can make this process quick and easy. It’s especially handy when you’re outdoors and need to work fast.

If you found this tip helpful, please give the video a thumbs up and consider sharing it with your fellow photographers. And if you want more practical advice like this, don’t forget to subscribe to Coffee Break Photography!

Thanks for watching! I hope using the hyperfocal distance helps you capture sharper, more stunning images every time you’re out taking pictures. My name is Rich Dyson, and this has been Coffee Break Photography. Happy shooting!