How to Measure Sharpness in DOF Terms

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Link this to your 'Lovers of Photography' friends, they'll thank you I promise.


Often we wonder how photographers get those amazing shots that keep the entire landscape in focus, or those where we can only see a single subject in focus, while all the rest is a blur. How they do that involves some real familiarity with your camera, or some calculations which, because they involve math have always boggled my mind. Sorry most artists are right-brained. So here's a calculator I found that can save you a ton of trouble and time. 

 

Assume you have a subject in mind, you take the shot and find that along with your subject, everything else is also in focus and you want your subject to be the sole sharp feature in your capture. How do you go about creating this effect? 

 

You have to think about why everything in the Depth Of Field, or DOF, has that sharp focus. The calculator below will give you the opportunity to play around with. A basic rule of thumb, is that the closer you are to your subject, the greater the tendency for your photo to have a blurred effect or shallow DOF, which is true in the flag photo above. Tendency being the keyword. There are other settings to consider, the distance you are from your subject, the focal  length in millimeters, say 17mm vs 300mm, and the aperture or f-stop.  

 

 

 

Depth of Field Calculator

Camera, film format, or circle of confusion

Focal length (mm)
Selected f-stop
Subject distance


Subject distance  40 ft
 
Depth of field 
Near limit  20.9 ft
Far limit  451.5 ft
Total  430.5 ft
In front of subject  19.1 ft (4%)
Behind subject  411.5 ft (96%)
Hyperfocal distance  43.9 ft
Circle of confusion  0.03 mm















Use the actual focal length of the lens for depth of field calculations. The calculator will automatically adjust for any "focal length multiplier" or "field of view crop" for the selected camera.

Focal lengths of digital camera lenses are listed here.
Focus at the subject distance, 40 ft
430.5 ft
20.9 ft 451.5 ft
Focus at the hyperfocal
distance, 43.9 ft
Depth of field extends from
21.95 ft to infinity

Depth Of Field Calculator


Article written solely for reader benefit as no affiliate income is being received and full credit is given to the website dofmaster.com.

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