Photography

Exposure, depth of field, lenses, lighting and the planning arithmetic around a shoot. 43 calculators.

Hyperfocal distance is the one landscape photographers come for. Focus at the hyperfocal distance and everything from half that distance to infinity is acceptably sharp, which is usually a better use of a small aperture than focusing on the horizon. The catch is in the word acceptably: the whole calculation rests on circle of confusion, an assumption about print size and viewing distance made in the film era. On a 24-megapixel sensor viewed at 100%, the standard 0.03 mm figure is optimistic, and edges that looked fine in a print will not.

Depth of field asks for sensor size for the same reason. Crop factor changes the result, and the popular shorthand that “crop sensors have more depth of field” is only true when you stand in the same place. Frame the same subject the same way and the difference mostly disappears.

Golden hour pages take latitude, because the length of it is not fixed. Near the equator it is roughly 30 minutes and the sun drops fast. At 60 degrees north in summer it can run for hours. Planning a shoot on a generic “one hour before sunset” is how people arrive to find they missed it or have far longer than they thought.