sense check - hyperfocal at night?

[Suomi]

Sorry I know that hyperfocal has been discussed many times before, but I still cannot get my head fully around it

The situation is this, I have the chance of photographing a Lakeland church. What I would like to do is take the shot at night, tomorrow is meant to be clear. Ideally would love to get the milky way in the shot also.

What I was planning to use was my D300 and a sigma 1850mm 2.8.

Facing north would have the church with a 900m fell in the background (fell being about 1500m away). Facing south would have church with 500m fell in the background (fell being about 3000m away).

Can hyperfocal be done at night? if so what would be the best f stop to use?

Would I just be better to open up the lens, which could mean dropping the ISO?

Any suggestions most welcome.

 

[jpw]

Assuming you are at 18mm on the 18-50, I would just set the aperture to f/11 and the focal length halfway between 1 and 2m on the scale, the hyperfocal would lie roughly between these two points. It's not something that can be set accurately, and is only a guide to getting 'acceptable' sharpness anyway, but at those settings you should be acceptably sharp from around 1m to infinity. Tripod of course, and timer/remote release would be useful if you have one. Keep the ISO to the base setting (200).

 

[Suomi]

Thanks John, that is helpful. I will use that as a baseline. Cheers Mark