Depth of Field Calculator

Depth of field is determined by three primary factors: aperture, focal length, and subject distance. A wider aperture (smaller f-number) produces shallower depth of field, creating the bokeh effect prized in portrait photography. A longer focal length also reduces depth of field, while increasing subject distance deepens it. The circle of confusion (CoC) is the maximum diameter of a blur spot that appears as a point to the human eye. For full-frame sensors, 0.03mm is the standard CoC. Smaller sensors use proportionally smaller CoC values (e.g., 0.02mm for APS-C, 0.015mm for Micro Four Thirds). The hyperfocal distance is the focus distance that maximizes depth of field for a given focal length and aperture. When focused at the hyperfocal distance, everything from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity is acceptably sharp. Landscape photographers frequently use hyperfocal focusing to maximize sharpness throughout the scene. Depth of field is not evenly distributed around the focus point. Approximately one-third of the DOF extends in front of the subject and two-thirds behind it, though this ratio approaches 50/50 at close focusing distances. For macro photography, depth of field becomes extremely shallow, often measured in millimeters. Focus stacking, where multiple images at different focus distances are combined, is a common technique to overcome this limitation.