Where should you focus when taking a Landscape photo? - landscape photography tips
Typically, but not always, you will want to keep as much of the image in focus as possible and this means selecting a small aperture (large number) to ensure that you end up with a wide depth of field. This will help to ensure that close and far away parts of the image are in focus.
These stunning images are by Colin Mill
My guess is that when taking a landscape photo, many people would set the focus point to around the middle of the scene, or even at the horizon, but that’s not the best place to focus.
As a general rule you should focus in the lower half of the frame, about a third of the way in to the scene. But this is only a general rule and you might want to ignore it if the scene has a particular point of interest in it that isn't around the third area. However if your landscape shot doesn’t have one specific point of interest it's probably a rule worth using.
There’s quite a lot of debate and technical discussions around this issue and in actual fact correct focus depends on many factors including the focal length of your lens, whether you’re shooting in portrait or landscape orientation, the aperture you’re using and how far the scene extends away from you.
Having said that, it’s a useful ‘rule’ to know and a good starting point when shooting landscapes. Whether you focus exactly on the third way point probably doesn’t matter that much, no need to get out a tape measure! But the key is not to focus on the horizon but closer to you.
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