Zone Focus or Hyperfocal Focus - Street Photography

Danones

Danones

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Diogo
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Hello guys,

I have been reading a lot lately regarding street photography and today I went out shooting and I couldn't decide wich way of focusing was better for street photography mainly.

I Shoot with two cameras. One is a Nikon D3300 with a 35mm prime lens. The other is a 35mm film SLR with a 50 mm lens.

Any opinions?
 
I think you should use the focus method which best suits what you are trying to say with the shot.
 
I mean I was using Zone focus, and I think it is really the best one but at the same time you have to more precise with your shoot.

On the other hand the hyperfocal is easy but on my Camera I have to stay at least 6 meters away of the subject
 
Zone focus to me means using a zone focus camera, like my 50p camera Olympus XA2. A 35mm film compact camera - it defaults on closing and opening the clamshell lens cover to (excuse the imperial - I'm old) between 5ft 10" and 20 ft 8" depending on available light and where the simple camera sets the aperture with an optimum focus of 8ft 10". That isn't bad for a default in street photography, and DSLR users might think about emulating that. If you can keep a small aperture by raising ISO and perhaps (this one has disadvantages for street) slowing the shutter - then your DoF will create a decent zone of focus.

I'm talking here a little like Queer guy advising straight guy - I mean a 35mm zone focus camera user advising a digital user.

Back of my 50p camera:

15827169044_0fc6d0d340.jpg
 
Zone focus, hyperfocus - two flavours of the same lollipop.

How narrow you can take the depth of focus depends how accurate you are at judging it and what your artistic intent is.
 
Zone focus is the way to go for street - after a while you will get a sort of instinctive feel for the focus ring setting without even having to look at the ring. Probably works best with a manual lens rather than an AF lens though.
 
I would have thought zone focusing would be more appropriate. Hyperfocal is from infinity to however close you can get depending on the aperture selected. For most street photography, infinity focus is not required.


Steve.
 
Steve Smith said:
I would have thought zone focusing would be more appropriate. Hyperfocal is from infinity to however close you can get depending on the aperture selected. For most street photography, infinity focus is not required.


Steve.
Click to expand...

Not really.

If you look at hyperfocal tables they usually state from and to for each aperture and it should be pretty easy to select a range that suits you so really you can use hyperfocal settings for something other than to infinity DoF.

For example with a 35mm lens (this is for Canon APS-C as that's what I had...)



The problem isn't the settings it's fly by wire / no marking lenses.

But the OP could buy a cheap old manual lens and use it via a cheap adapter.

OP - You can get an old Olympus OM 28mm f2.8 for under £30 and an adapter will cost about £5. I used old Zuiko lenses on my 5D and they worked well.

Might be worth thinking about if you want to do the whole zone focus street thing.
 
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woof woof said:
Not really.
Click to expand...

Yes really. Hyperfocal is a distance (depending on aperture). When you set your lens to that distance, everything from half that distance up to infinity is of acceptable sharpness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperfocal_distance

The table you posted is a depth of field table, not a hyperfocal table... however, have a look at the bottom line and see how those settings match those in the line above and all go up to infinity!


Steve.
 
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Steve Smith said:
Yes really. Hyperfocal is a distance (depending on aperture) from which everything up to infinity is of acceptable sharpness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperfocal_distance

The table you posted is a depth of field table, not a hyperfocal table... however, have a look at the bottom line and see how those settings match those in the line above and all go up to infinity!


Steve.
Click to expand...

Helpful though isn't it? :D

OP - Internet sourced settings are easy to find, download and study but if the lens doesn't have markings the traditional set lens and shoot technique may not be easy.
 
woof woof said:
Helpful though isn't it?
Click to expand...

It's certainly a useful chart... However, almost all of my lenses are from Ye Olden Dayes™ and they have depth of field scales built in. To get to hyperfocal, you just line up the ∞ mark on the focusing ring with the relevant aperture's far mark and the close focus distance is shown at the same aperture's mark on the other side.

No pesky charts to lose!

Sometimes people suggest focusing a third of the way into the scene... so what is 1/3 of infinity?!!


Steve.
 
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