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Understanding Depth of Field
Published: 2004-04-01 15:00:14 +0000 UTC; Views: 60818; Favourites: 739; Downloads: 18020
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Description
Brief:Depth of Field is one of the most important - and probably most complicated - aspects of photography.
This article is an attempt to simplify it, explaining how and why it changes and what to do to control it.
Enjoy, and please leave us a comment if you found this helpful, or if you have advice/corrections/questions.
Thank you!
Article by `In-Apt
Intermediate level article. All beginners are recommended to read Making of a Photograph article first.
Related content
Comments: 147
My head hurts now (I'm a novice at this), but this tutorial was fascinating and very informative. Thank you!
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perfect lesson, I've tried to explain it myself & failed 
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your deviation has been featured in this article: [link]
thanks a lot!
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Very nice lesson. all what we need to do now is just to apply your great lesson in reality so we can get the best DOF. Now I am very happy cause I got one lesson for today
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very nice tutorial. I had a pretty clear understanding of DOF already, but this filled in some of the blank spots
Thank you very much!
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Hey there
I have a favour to ask of you... I am currently doing my Year 12 HSC (Australian: Higher School Certificate, ie. Last year of high school) Information Processes and Technology major project, Which is to be a website on photography and cameras.
I saw your tutorial and was wondering if I would able to feature it on the site I make. Of course, You will be fully credited with links to your deviantart profile and deviation page.
I will also send you a link at the completion of the project if you would wish to see.
I would really appreciate if you agreed, but if you donβt, no hard feelings
Thanks!
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Thank you so much, helped a little bit on the way
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Muito bom! NΓ£o Γ© fΓ‘cil tornar o "complicado" mais "simples".
obrigado
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too much beneficial for beginners like me,
thanks for the great work.
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Oh my gosh, thank you so much! I couldn't figure out depth of field at all until I read this, thank you so much!
I looked through your gallery but I didn't see anything relating to shutterspeed. What does shutterspeed do and what should I know about it?
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Shutter speed is how fast the shutter opens and closes when you press the button. What you need to know about it is that depending on what you want to take a picture of, you may (probably) need to change your shutter speed. Slow shutter speed for pictures taken at night or in other dark environments and fast for bright or motion photographs. I hope this was helpful!!!
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cool. i'm really confused about how to adjust the aperture.
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Will definitely find this useful! Thank you for your hard work!
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Great tutorial!
This is definatly going to come in handy for me. ^^
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That was brilliant. I'd never even heard of this before. I read this with a notebook in front of me. Thanks!
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Your wonderful tutorial has been featured here.[link]
Thank you for providing the gallery with such awesome Resources.
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Wow, this is gonna save me so much time of trying to explain depth of field. Thanks so much!
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Thank you for posting such an informative piece.
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Thankx for sharing your knowledge 
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Thank you for the Tut! The best explanation I've come across.
I'm no pro, so when I read the last part I thought of when I got a little confused previously.
When it talks about sharpness relative to aperture. It says that when using a wider aperture, you may not get as sharp a picture as desired. I know what you mean by this, but I might have experimented in the extremes after reading this and thought the narrower the aperture, the sharper the pic?
It may over-complicate things, but. Is it worth pointing out this is within reason? As you also lose sharpness with a very narrow aperture (e.g. I used f:22's and alike for a while and wondered why my sunsets weren't sharp).
Just a thought
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Thanks a lot for sharing this information. I learned a lot
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yeahh very heplful to understanding about DOF ..thank you so muchh
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Great guide, Specially the illustrations.
Would be even greater if you included hyperfocal focus as well
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thnx for sharing ...this is invaluable to me.....i'm sooooo NOT technical or mathematical.....
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I originally fav'd this as but since I'm combining that account into this one, I'm moving my favorite favs over... and this one is going with me.
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one problem: subject ditance - your diagramm has a small flaw those focus markers are not acutally parralel lines , but circle sectors...yes , they can be approximated to lines at longer focal lengths ..
but what will the outcome look like if you have this diagramm in your head when using a 24mm/1.8 prime at its widest aperture ?
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Hi ,you've been featured in this news article
https://news.deviantart.com/article/39459/
thanks a lot for sharing
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Does this go for the compact digital cameras (aka amateur cameras)
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This provides a great understanding of depth of field, however, DOF is not effected by focal length, DOF MYTH EXPLAINED
"A Hands-On Manual for Cinematographers", David Samuelson states at the conclusion of his section on depth of field : "Depth of field remains the same, regardless of lens focal length, so long as the image size (and f-stop) is the same. There is no point in changing to a shorter focal length lens and moving closer, because if the image size remains the same so will the depth of field." (Focal Press, London, second edition, 1998, p.218)
apart from that this is really good!
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Thank you very much for the simple and still precious explanation! +fav
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It's so easy to understand DOF,
even though I don't know English very well.
thanks.
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i love this article it was very helpful and clear.. please keep up the outstanding work
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Great article!!! Keep like this.
I have only one thing to say: It doesn't stays clear how the aperture affects the DOF, you only explain what aperture is.
I haven't googled it, but I think it is because of the cuality of the rays of light passing through the diaphragm. While the aperture is wide (i.e. F/1.8), out of focus rays of light pass through the diaphragm, and in the other hand when the F number is higher (F/16) only in focus light can pass through the diaphragm
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Yes - that could be right and it reminds me of something my doctor told me when I was younger:
I'm very short-sighted and without my glasses nearly everything is blurry - but when you nearly close the eyes the edges get sharper
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hi, i just signed up today & wanted to read your article on understanding depth of field. Everytime I click on the download button it says that the file is not found. Any idea why? Thanks.
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It's working now!
Have fun!
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