If I'm taking a photo of railtracks leading to a church with a 24mm lense, and want everything in focus - using f-22, should I focus on the railtrack dead in front of me, a little way in front of me, or on the church at infinity? will it make a difference? What if I can can't use f-22 or similar because of poor light?

-- Greg Brosnan (gbrosnan@infosel.net.mx), April 20, 1999

Answers

I would do it with a large format camera, on a tripod, tilting the lens to get everything in focus.

If I had to use 35mm, without a tilting lens, minimum aperture with a tripod makes sense.

As you may realise, 'depth of field' just means 'out-of-focus, but not too much'. It doesn't actually mean 'everything in focus'. You might ask yourself: what is the point of interest in the is photograph? When people look at it, where will their eyes be drawn? The answer might be 'the church', and you might decide to make that the sharpest.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan.Gibson@technologist.com), April 20, 1999.

Try to focus on a point approximately 1/3 way into the image. One focuses on this point because your depth of field usually extends 1/3 in front of the point of sharpest focus and 2/3's behind. You can verify this if you have "depth of field" preview capability on your camera.

-- Harold Todman (htodman@yahoo.com), April 20, 1999.

With a 24mm lens everything will look in focus no matter what you do, I hope that the church won't look to small. If I were making this photo with the equipment listed I would use F/8 and focus at infinity. Harold Merklinger explains in the "Ins and Outs of Focus" why you would want to use this approach.

-- Jeff White (zonie@computer-concepts.com), April 20, 1999.

Thanks! Where can i read that `Ins and outs of focus' stuff? on the internet anywhere? I'm in Mexico and that kind of literature ain't easy to find...

-- Greg Brosnan (gbrosnan@infosel.net.mx), April 20, 1999.

Some of this information is at http://fox.nstn.ca/~hmmerk/ .

-- Jeff White (zonie@computer-concepts.com), April 20, 1999.

Use a medium yellow lens filter to tone correct foliage,cloud cover and sky tones.When using this fairly wide angle lens you will run into perspective distortion as your close up objects will appear very large in relation to the view at the greater distance.I would suggest you go to 50 mm lens as this is closer to what you would see with your eye.your wide angle is more appropriate for use in shooting a wide object close up like pictures of houses from a sidewalk to fill a frame.Your subject matter sounds fairly linear by description and running away from you.F 22 will give you the greatest depth of field you can achieve with the lens check your camera meter for the correct shutter speed.Your camera may be equiped with a stopped down lever which will allow you to preview the scene through the viewfinder.I would probably go for a medium speed film like ASA125 because of the small aperture you want to use.Shoot for the contrast have fun and take many pictures at different settings,only 1 in a hundred ends up outstanding on a good day ,See Ya ,STEVE

-- (Slahr96036@aol.com), April 21, 1999.

Using f22 on a 24mm is not necessary for this subject. I presume: you didn't give the distance from start to finish. But f11 will more than suffice in most cases and f22 will give less quality in contrast and sharpness.

-- Lot Wouda (lotwouda@compuserve.com), April 22, 1999.