Depth of Field Calculator

What is depth of field?

Depth of field (DoF) is the zone in front of and behind your focus point that still looks acceptably sharp in the final image. Outside that zone, things gradually blur. It's never a hard on/off line — it's a gradient — but for planning a shot, treating it as a near limit and a far limit is close enough to be useful.

What changes it

• Aperture (f-number): the biggest lever. A wide aperture (f/1.8, f/2.8) gives a shallow, blurred-background look. A narrow aperture (f/11, f/16) keeps more of the scene sharp front-to-back.
• Focal length: longer lenses compress depth of field at the same aperture and distance — this is why a 200mm portrait lens blurs backgrounds far more aggressively than a 24mm wide-angle at the same f-stop.
• Subject distance: the closer you focus, the shallower your depth of field gets — this is why macro photography has famously razor-thin focus zones.
• Sensor size: smaller sensors (APS-C, Micro Four Thirds) need a longer focal length to match a full-frame field of view, which effectively increases depth of field for the same framing — one reason smartphone photos rarely have real background blur without computational help.

How to use this calculator

Pick your sensor format, enter the focal length and aperture you plan to shoot at, and your approximate distance to the subject. The calculator returns your near and far focus limits, the total zone that's in focus, and the hyperfocal distance — the focus distance that gives you the maximum depth of field for that aperture and focal length, useful for landscape work where you want everything from the foreground to infinity reasonably sharp.

FAQ

Why do landscape photographers focus at the hyperfocal distance instead of infinity? Focusing exactly at infinity wastes some of your depth of field behind the point where it's useful. Focusing at the hyperfocal distance instead pulls the near limit of your focus zone forward, typically extending sharp focus all the way to infinity while also gaining sharpness closer to the camera.

Why does my real photo look softer than this calculator suggests? This calculator uses a standard circle-of-confusion value for each sensor format, which assumes a normal print/screen viewing size. Pixel-peeping on a high-resolution monitor, using a very large print, or shooting with an especially sharp lens will all reveal softness slightly inside these limits.