Photographing the stars at night may yield amazing photographs, but operating the camera in the dark can be difficult. Making sure the stars are in focus is one of the most important aspects of a superb image of the stars. But dealing with your camera settings can be tricky in the dark. There just isn’t enough light for your camera’s focusing function to work under a dark, moonless sky. It won’t be much better if you use your eyes and a DSLR viewfinder.
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For this, you need to learn about the techniques and settings that your lens can adapt for achieving focus to infinity. This guide helps to explain all about that in clear terms.
Lens Focus To Infinity
Let’s start with a clarification. “Infinity focus” does not imply that the image is as wide as the eye can see. In terms of focus, infinity is the point in the distance beyond which everything is equally in focus. Assume you’re standing beneath a line of power lines with 100 pylons extending into the distance. You can focus on the first, second, or third pylons by moving your attention closer to them. As you focus on additional pylons, you’ll find that the sharpness of the pylons that are further away are increasing.
There will be a pylon ahead of you, perhaps 10 or 20 yards. If you concentrate on the pylon, all subsequent pylons will be crisp. This is the infinite point. Infinity is the focal point from behind the lens, where sharpness will stretch far into the distance. Sharp stars indicate that your lens is focused on infinity, which means that things at infinity are the sharpest.
This is due to various factors. The camera’s focusing system is quick, and it requires space to go in and out without coming to a halt. Temperature fluctuations, as well as focal length changes on zoom lenses, result in somewhat varied focusing points at infinity.
Realistically, digital cameras are difficult to understand and operate. The Menu systems are filled with several options, making it difficult to get a perfect uniform setting. However, one must understand them to capture good photos.
We know that understanding the various types of cameras, settings, and techniques can be overwhelming if you are new to the photography industry. Thus, we have provided this master article – camera 101, to help all beginners and even experienced photographers understand their cameras.
Click Below to know all about Cameras, From start to end.
How to Focus on Infinity
For your next photographic adventure beneath the stars, there are several ways to focus on infinity. The “how” of focusing on infinity is very dependent on the lens being used. A decent manual lens will include a depth of field scale that you can match up with your focus ring to achieve the correct depth of field. Simply align the focus ring with the infinity sign, which looks like this ∞, to focus on infinity. It’s a little more difficult to get infinity focus using an autofocus lens.
Then, after that and everything else is in sharp focus, turn off the autofocus so it doesn’t modify the focus lock while you compose the infinity-focused photo.
What You Should Know About Infinity Focus
Choose Your Focus Length
If you’re going to use a zoom lens to photograph the stars, make sure to choose your chosen focal length before focusing on the camera. Your zoom lens should ideally be “parfocal,” which means that the focus does not shift as you zoom in and out. Most zoom lenses are “varifocal,” meaning that the focus shifts as the zoom magnification varies.
Lens With Manual Focus
Simply because manual focus lenses aren’t always ideal, it’s a good idea to double-check the clarity of your stars with actual images and make any required focus ring changes. At infinity focus, a manual focus lens will have a hard stop. In many circumstances, simply rotating your focus ring all the way to infinity will be enough.
Telephoto Lens
The focal length of this type of lens can be around 135mm. It’s razor-sharp. The auto-focus technology of the latest model EF 135mm prime lens model is one of the best in its class. It’s tough to get a depth of field that encompasses everything while shooting at 135mm (telephoto lens).
When Should Infinity Focus Be Used?
Infinity focus, like any other method like applying a small depth of field, should be utilized with caution. However, most photographers will switch to infinity focus in a few situations.
Landscapes
The first is the scenery. The fact that you can inspect all of the features in the panorama you’ve produced, whether close or distant, is part of what makes a landscape attractive.
Wildlife
Another good reason to utilize infinity focus is for wildlife photography. If you’re concerned about animals dashing between the foreground and background of your shot, utilize infinity focus to ensure the animal is in focus regardless of where it is in the frame.
Low Light
Finally, there’s photography in low light and at night. Adjusting the camera lens to focus at infinity is far easier than manually focusing on items that you can’t see in the dark. After dark, just focus an autofocus lens on the moon or perhaps another distant light source to focus to infinity, and you’ll be able to ensure that anything in the long exposure remains clear.
Note: Infinity focus, like restricted depth of field or creative lighting, is a vital skill that no photographer should be without. Make sure you understand how to focus to infinity with your competent lenses, so you’re never caught off guard in the field.
Does Infinity Mean The Same For All Lenses?
The distance to infinity focus is determined by the focal length. Infinity points will change depending on focal length. The focal length of a 24mm prime lens is 24mm. It will reach infinity at around 20 meters, whereas a 200mm lens will reach infinity at 500 meters. At apertures of f/6.3, you can achieve good clarity all the way through a landscape shot because the distance to infinity focus is just 20 meters in front of me.
Pro Tip: If my foreground is close, you simply need to use narrower apertures (f/14-16) with careful focusing. If you can reach and touch the foreground while taking the photo, it’s intimate.
You might be interested in our article ” How To Hold Camera Steady? A Guide By Professionals “
How Do You Focus on Infinity
Use Sunshine To Compose
One of the most effective strategies to achieve infinite focus also takes the greatest time to prepare. Arriving at your location when the sun is still shining, even if it is twilight, gives you time to focus your lens on a distant object such as a mountain, tree, building, or the horizon. Move your focus point to the lens’s center and try to focus on the furthest item possible.
Use Manual Settings
Change your camera’s focus mode to manual once you’ve obtained focus. Manual focus is simplest for me when using physical levers or switches, but you may need to modify the focus mode in your menu system. Arriving early enough to observe the landscape provides you the extra benefit of being able to search for sky compositions that contain foreground items such as trees, rocks, or mountains. When you’re in a pitch-black setting, it’s impossible to make these composition selections.
Adjust Lens’s Focus Ring
A focus distance scale is visible through a glass on the top of many lenses. By adjusting your lens’ focus ring to that position on its focus scale and taking a photo of this scale at infinity focus, you can establish the right focus in the dark. Set the focal length you’ll use to photograph the stars if you’re using a zoom lens. Focus the lens on distant objects and start taking your shots that you can collect.
Focus To The Moon
Use the moon to concentrate if there is one in the sky, even if it is only a sliver of the moon. The moon is extraordinarily bright, appears to be endless in the distance, and is simple to focus on for most autofocus systems, even at night. Place your focus point in the middle of the frame once more. Place the focal point on the moon’s brightest area and focus, either with auto or manual focus. Focusing on the edge of the moon, which has the maximum contrast, will make focusing easier.
Locate Or Construct A Remote Light Source
If there are any strong lights in the distance, such as street lights, building lights, or automobile headlights, make use of them. Of course, if you were looking for the darkest sky, distant lights might not be an option. If you have a powerful flashlight, shine it on the farthest item you can see and concentrate on it.
Focus Your Attention On A Bright Planet Or Star
Some planets have a lot of light and may be used as a focus. Put the camera in a live view setting and point it at the brightest subject you can locate at a distance. Zoom in to your focal point as far as possible in live view, then shift it such that it is directly above the bright planet. You may now use your camera’s focusing function, albeit most cameras will seek focus and fail. It just takes a very slight movement of the focus ring to get focus, and it is quite noticeable when it is achieved.
Play With Camera Settings
You can bring up the image and use your flashlight or headlamp to adjust the focus ring to the same location. Set the lens to infinity and utilize trial and error to get focus on the stars, even if you don’t have a photo. Increase the ISO to a high value so that you can speed up the process, such as 12,800, 25,600, or higher. This will result in extremely noisy photographs that you will not preserve, but it will allow you to take faster exposures.
Take a picture, then zoom in as much as you can on the image to see how big the stars are. Instead of soft blobs of light, you want them to be as tiny and crisp as possible. Make little adjustments to your focus ring, take a new photo, and zoom in on focus once more. This procedure can take some time, but with a few test photos, you can usually nail focus.
Keep Your Focus Active
If you’re shooting at night for an extended period of time, double-check your focus by zooming all the way in on your photographs on your camera’s back screen to check the focus of the stars, just in case your lens’ focus ring has been bumped. Star photographs on the back screen of your camera may appear fantastic when not zoomed in, but when you go home and see the photos larger on your screen, you may be dissatisfied by your stars.
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Wrapping Up
When you first start out, setting lens focus to infinity, and doing photography can be challenging. But if you get the feel of it, it can be really rewarding. Continue to practice, and the procedure will become simpler with each passing day.
FAQ’s
Is it possible for a lens to focus past infinity?
Newer auto-focus lenses always focus past infinity, so there’s no complete stop on the focus ring, and your photographs won’t be crisp once you’ve gone past infinity. This is due to a variety of factors. The camera’s focusing motor is quick, and it requires space to go in and out without coming to a halt.
Which lens has an infinite focal length?
The range to infinity focus is determined by the focal length. Infinity points will change depending on focal length. A 24mm lens, for example, will reach infinity at around 20 meters, whereas a 200mm lens will reach infinity at 500 meters.