Re: Hyperfocal focusing: Use judgment first!

[P3D Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxx>]

Shooter Greg Wageman steps into the breach along with me and says not
everything in the successful stereo shot must be in sharp focus all of
the time, then tries to postulate when a background can be soft without
being distracting...

This is tough to enunciate, and I don't know that I can get my arms
around it, but I think of it mostly in plano terms -- making certain
that the background stays in the background, without any elements to
pull the searching eye toward it -- with one exception for stereo. If a
complex background is way out of focus, your eye won't probe it
searching for what's recognizable. On the other hand, if a wash of solid
color without obvious texture is way out of focus, that's not obviously
soft because there are no clear focus cues, so the searching begins.
High key lighting can contribute to the distraction -- it invites
investigation by virtue of the illumination, if lower key than the
foreground, then it's subjugated.

Nomex still at the ready, and going a step further... I think foreground
elements can stand soft focus if they are secondary to the composition,
esp darkly colored or low illumination. Conversely, darkly colored or
low illumination background elements (as opposed to a wash of
background) needn't be sharp if secondary. I have seen examples of both
just recently from respectible stereo photographers in good standing! 
8-)

I think the point is that the long standing truism that each and every
aspect of the stereo scene must be sharp and "probe-able" is untrue,
that there is a visual hierarchy created by light, color, and position
and within that hierarchy there are incidental elements which needn't be
part of the stereo landscape...


Eric G.


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