The hyped distance…
Although the name sounds very advanced and almost like something from a galaxy far far away, it is really very simple: to make the most of your dept-of-field (DOF).
Notice the “distance” in the term “hyperfocal distance” – it is all about the distance between your camera and the focus point. When you focus at the hyperfocal distance, everything between that point and to infinity is in focus. Or I should say, appears to be in focus. There is a lot of technical details here that I omit, but I want to give you a drivers license to shooting at the hyperfocal distance – not turn you into an engineer.
Your depth-of-field (DOF) is an interval before and after the focus point where things appear to be in focus. I normally think about it so that 1/3 of the depth-of-field (DOF) lies before the focus point, and 2/3rds lies after the focus point. This is not very accurate, but a good operational way to think about it. So when your focus point is so that the far end of the DOF just reaches infinity, then there is also a good part before the focus point that is in focus. If your hyperfocal distance for example is 10 meters away, then the space between the focus point and halfway back to you also appears to be in focus. In other words, only what is between you and 5 meters out will be out of focus. From 5 meters out and to infinity is in focus.
Calculations are not necessary
So should you calculate the (DOF)? You can if you want to, but what I do is to focus to infinity with manual focus, and then pull the focus point back towards me until infinity becomes out of focus, and then revert just a little bit until infinity becomes sharp again, and then I have the focus point hyper focal distance. If you have a mirrorless camera with focus peak highlights, this is a brilliant illustration of how your focus plane and the (DOF) works you can find the hyper focal distance using the method I just described, but supported by the focus peaking highlights.
Learning from old lenses…
On old lenses, there was markings showing the (DOF). The black dot just above the blue “11” shows that the lens is at f/11 aperture . The same blue color as the “11” is used for the (DOF) markings on the zoom ring. You can see that to the left, the blue mark is at infinity, and to the right the other blue mark is between 3 and 5, i.e. around 4, the precision is not that great. The focus point is between 5 meters and infinity (the tilted 8 to the left just above the black dot). The blue mark to the left is the far end of the (DOF) whereas the blue mark to the right is the near end of the (DOF).
Is the lens at the hyper focal distance? Yes, it is as the far end of the DOF touches infinity. Had I focused closer, then infinity would be out of focus (which every portrait photographer knows), had I focused further away, I would have wasted DOF beyond infinity.
The distance is not linear
Also notice the distance scale: You can see it (in meters) top right is at 1.2 meters, then 1.5, 2, 3, 5 and infinity! So it is almost is if the distance “explodes” when you get beyond 5 meters, i.e. a very small turn on the focus ring gives a big jump in the distance. That is why it is vital that you get the far end of the DOF to touch infinity, because you then work with the part of the distance scale where you cover a lot of ground!
DOF calculator
If you put the above example into a DOF calculator (credit: Photopills) then you will get a hyperfocal distance of 7.42 meters, DOF near limit to the half of that and the DOF far limit to infinity. In this example we have got the most out of the DOF and only the distance from the camera and 3.7 meters out is out of focus.
Notice that the DOF depends on several factors, such as the sensor size, the aperture you shoot at, the focal length of your lens, distance to the subject etc. But no matter what DOF you are working with, the hyperfocal distance is the focus distance where you make the most of what you got.
Related reading
What is manual focus in photography?
What is the focal plane in photography?
