An Introduction to Zone Focusing for your Leica, Rangefinder, or DSLR

From my experience, i noticed that it’s even easier to zone focus with a compact camera with an wide angle lens, because in that case the depth of field is much bigger!

Nice tutorial, Eric

I’ve been using just zone/hyperfocal focus for about 2 months with D700 & 28mm/2.8D and it’s definitely the way to go.

The only annoyance is that the focus ring on the lens can be moved too easily (by accident) so sometimes I’m almost tempted to stick a bit of tape on it.

I don’t tend to shoot ultra close so normally leave it around 2m and set to program mode (P) as this mostly keeps aperture around f/11 in good light. I leave auto ISO on so that it goes up to iso6400 if I’m shooting somewhere dark like a street at night or in a pub or club.

I think there is an error in terminology. It’s not hyperfocal zone focusing what you describe, it’s just using your depth of field scale. the hyperfocal distance is essentially the minimum distance that contains in it’s right-side depth of field scale – infinity. Am I mistaken?

Hi Eric,

I like your explanatory picture, good one. Yet, Eric, F16 at ISO800 or above allows you to get only a fraction of the M9′s amazing image quality capability. That is for two reasons : diffraction and digital noise. Pictures at ISO160 and max F8 are simply stunning, so why not try to estimate distance with a little bit less of error margin ? The corresponding 30cm depth of field at F8.0 is still pretty long at 1 meter.
All the best, Yanick

hi Eric,
thanks for the column, but i have to say that while this technique eases the pain it also turns a great camera into nothing else than a point and shoot camera.
i think there are way too many pictures out there shot with f16 or maybe f11 where everything is in focus. and especially on the street where there is always background i find having nearly everything in focus extremely distracting. and i think depth of field is extremely important to focus the eye of the viewer … and tell a story. you lose that ability by shooting with f16.

can it be painful to shoot f1.4 or or higher? yes, it can. you miss shots. but at least you tried.

my set up is usually low ISO, f stop of somewhere between 1.4 and 2.8 depending on the quickness of the subjects i am shooting and the light levels and the shutter speed is set by light meter and then depending on slight changes in light i move up or down a bit … and then focus i usually preset at 2m but that is the one dial i change when i shoot.

Hi Eric: I wonder because I read an interview (Fotoeasy magazin 1/2011) about the 8 golden rules of streetphotography and you mentioned in rule2 that you are also using the P Mode / ISO 400, right?

Any difference / advantages for P-Mode vs “Zone Focussing)

Thx
Sascha

Well, I keep it a lot simpler than this. For one thing, I’m using a small sensor camera with a very wide lens (Lumix LX5 at 24mm equivalent) so DOF is already going to be deep due to both the sensor size and the angle of view. I need a high shutter speed since I shoot from the hip and never have time to steady the camera, so f11 or f16 is out of the question. What I do is go into aperture priority mode, put it on f4, then go manual focus and focus on something about a metre and an half (5 ft) away. Then I use the manual focus control (with it’s DOF scale) to set it so everything within about 1.5 and 3 metres is in focus. Bingo, off I go. After all, anything that’s more than 3 metres (10 feet) away is background anyway.

If the light is lower I go to f2.8 and scale it so things just over a metre and just about 2 metres are in focus.

Bearing in mind that the LX5 scale is pretty conservative, so results are acceptable beyond the scale. Usually.

All that to say, f11 or f16 seems excessive for street photography, where your subject is usually no more than four or five feet away. (Different if you’re full frame and using 50mm I suppose…)

Eric, this is the first video of yours I’ve watched the whole way through and you really don’t know what you’re talking about, do you? You don’t know what is zone focusing and hyper focal, you can’t ‘remember’ if a small f stop is a large aperture or vice versa, you tell people to always use a large aperture for street shots when we can all see that many of the best street shots have a shallow depth of field to isolate the subject … What makes you think you are qualified to hold workshops, taking peoples money? Learn a few things from your friend Thomas before pretending you are some sort of professional.

Am I right in thinking that hyperfocal is all about using the infinity symbol on the focus ring in correspondence with the working aperture. You can then judge from the barrel markings where the critical focus zone/point is ie: on my 28mm elmarit @ F16 i set the infinity symbol to correspond to F16 also, then reading the barrel markings from left to right I can see that anything from 0.8m to infinity will be in acceptable focus with the critical focus point @ 1.5m. Hyperfocal offers us the ability to shoot everything acceptably focused very quickly whereas zone focusing allows us to be more selective with what we choose to be in focus.
What doesn’t make apparent sense in this description is that if you use film you cant just change the iso/asa setting for each shot as you can with a digital camera. I’ve been doing a lot of work in Borough market in London recently. It exists under a railway bridge and can be quite dark and very crowded. So if you’ve shot off half a roll @400 in bright light or even 320 then go into a badly lit crowded area and are getting shutter speeds of 30th/sec on a F 16 or F22 you either have to change rolls or push the film X2 or X3 stops at least and lose in development what you’ve already taken. The only option is to shoot with a faster aperture, which on my lens is F2.8 fastest, which when used with the hyperfocal principle only allows acceptable focus from nearer 5m to infinity, which with a wide angle doesn’t help with close up photography.
This is when I’ll use zone focusing more because I’ll stop the lens down to F2.8 and set the lens to either 0.7, 0.8 or max 1m. I may have to push the film by 1/2 stop but I found that won’t affect the development time to much on the stuff shot at 400. I don’t think it is as simple as to say wack the lens onto F16 or F22 and that’ll
give the greatest depth of field, well it will do, but what’s the point if there’s bad exposure.

Eric I think a lot of people missed your point. I love street photography because of what Eric has stated in his settings. Street shots are not about getting creamy backgrounds or billboard sharpness. No it’s about using your viewfinder as a window into who you are. I have seen great street shots taken at 3200+’ISO. I have seen IPhones destroy 1Ds and 1.2 primes because of content. Eric can take a Blackberry Pearl and produce shots that a 24-70 canon or Nikon could only dream of. Photography is the expression of individuality, it’s why we love it. Keep shooting we will keep watching.

Well Eric there are quite some different opinions here… To me I’d say you’re doing a good job by sharing your experiences, to both newcomers and advanced ones.

For me isolating the subject is important to create the right focus and perhaps nice bokeh. HOWEVER, more important is the content. Shooting something quite odd or the perfect composition is what streetphotography is about to me.

So just keep it up and let’s learn from each other, because I can kima agree with both opinions.

(but damn, shooting at 1m will never be possible for me I guess….that close)

Eric,
thank you for sharing! Street is something I have always been interested in but haven’t had a moment to invest into broadening my photography skill set. I find street photography to be one of the most expansive and artistic of genres and you explain zone focusing in manner that is easier to understand. Most of my work has been studio; control over the environment and time are essential. Street however poses that elusive shot, that moment where being indecisive or unfamiliar with technique or gear can lose a moment forever.

And I must mention – I’ve been working with other photographers for years. Many people here have commented on your use of proper verbiage and on and on and on and I want to just add this: I know famous photographers who could care less about gear, technique and technical jargon because in the end the resulting image is all that matters. To those who want to rant about minutia of the art and background and gear get off your high horse…its not the best perspective.

There are apps for calculating hyperfocal. Some are as easy to use as the scale on your lens, so that’s an option for those of us without a scale.

hi eric,
any special setting in shooting color film indoor, when lighting conditions are not the greatest?

for outdoors your advice has been great!
Aperture: f/8 or above
Shutter: above 250ths/second
ISO: ISO 400 film pushed to 1600
Focus: Prefocus to 1.5 meters

thanks eric!