Lost Lagoon Swan IR Aug 12 2009 Nikon D80_DSC1371

Lost Lagoon Swan IR Aug 12 2009 Nikon D80_DSC1371, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

The big difference between my first Infra Red converted camera (my quirky but ever faithful 6 mega pixel Nikon D100) and my second generation one (my ever excellent 10 mega pixel Nikon D80) has been focus. I'm not sure if it's the higher resolution (most likely) or a bit of dud during conversion to IR (unlikely) but getting crisp focus with this 'new' IR rig has been a challenge. So much so that I've started honing my expertise in what's called hyper focal photography. It's a subject worth a Google if you are looking for mind blowing depths of field and being able to get the crispness of a large format camera with a digital SLR.

It's a technique that's not for the meek however. You'll be shooting in the f/16 to f/25 aperture range, on a tripod, at 1/10 of a second on a sunny day if you are lucky. And, to make it even more brain power humbling I use an application called PhotoCalc on my iPhone to get the exact start of the hyper focal range. The hyper focal starting point varies with focal length (damn those zoom lenses), f stop, etc.

Here's one of my favorite Stanley Park Vancouver compositions - Lost Lagoon complete with the requisite swan. Notice that the depth of field in the capture is ... well ... the whole picture. :)