Shooting on the edge of all limits. Who knows the formula?

[Alex Davydov]

Ok, the good news is that I don't drink beer, because you are right - hyperfocal focusing does not work for portraits.

I've done some experiments and here are results:

Camera is set to F2.8 and 24mm focal length, which sets hyperfocal length at 4.8m / 14.4ft. Focus range starts at 2.4m / 7.2ft from the camera.

If subject is on the start of focusing range face is not sharp enough.


As subject moves back he gains sharpness, but becomes smaller and therefore when cropped and zoomed he is not sharp enough




Even at 24mm and F2.8 (when hyperfocal length is the shortest for my lense) subject needs to be posisioned even closer to camera to make a decent portraight shot. But that puts him out of focus range with being totally blury as a consequence.


It looks like the only solution for my problem is to drop the idea of background sharpness in the dark until camera ISO behavior is improved and that shot would be possible at F8. Or as you have suggested to take that shot in blue hour when there is more light.

I am glad I experimented today, so I don't have to do it on tomorrow's shoot. :-)

Thank you a lot for all the feedback! It was a great learning experience.