You’ve probably heard the idea that to quickly get decent focus in a landscape photo, focus one third of the way into the scene.

But there’s a problem with that which can leave your foreground soft.

And it’s easy to miss until you get back home and zoom in on your images in Photoshop, when it becomes painfully clear.

The problem is that focusing one third of the way into the scene, you might still be focusing on something that’s too far away for the depth of field to fully cover the foreground.

Let’s say the furthest thing in your scene is a mile away…

Focusing one third of the way into that scene would mean focusing on something a third of a mile away…

And if you have anything remotely close to the camera, chances are that’s gonna fall outside of the depth of field.

So here’s what I do, and what I encourage you to try:

It’s a simple shift, but makes a big difference.

Instead of focusing one third into a landscape scene…

Focus one third into the foreground.

Bringing the focus point that much further forward brings those closer objects more into focus, and the far-point of the depth of field is probably still “infinity”.

Especially when shooting wide angle.

See this image below:

Red Line – Background of the scene

Red Dotted Line – One third “into” the scene

Green Line – Where the foreground ends

Green Dotted Line – One third into the foreground

 

Thing is, this is what I consider an “80/20” technique…

Something that will work most of the time for the least amount of effort.

But what about those times when you’re not shooting wide angle, or you’re not shooting a “typical” foreground/background composition?

That’s when you’ll want to dig a little deeper and go beyond the 80/20.

You can learn all about this in my Landscape Capture Masterclass.