Pick a camera, a lens, an aperture and a distance: see what will be sharp, how blurred the background gets, and where to focus for maximum sharpness.
How far the trees behind the subject are: the further, the softer.
Simulated photo: each plane is blurred by its real defocus.
Near limit
2.46 m
Far limit
2.55 m
Depth of field
9.03 cm
49 % in front · 51 % behind
Hyperfocal
134 m
Focused there, sharp from 66.9 m to ∞
Framing
1.02 m × 0.68 m
Scene covered at 2.5 m
Angle of view
23.9°
Horizontal · 28.6° diagonal
Full-frame equivalent
85 mm f/1.8
Crop factor ×1
Circle of confusion
0.03 mm
Sharpness criterion
At the same framing, depth of field depends mostly on the f-number and the sensor size: a 35 mm from 2 m and an 85 mm from 5 m at f/2 give nearly the same depth on the subject. What changes is the background: the longer lens magnifies it, so it looks more blurred and closer.
With a 24 mm at f/11 on full frame, the hyperfocal distance is about 1.8 m: focus there and everything from about 0.9 m to infinity is acceptably sharp. Stopping down further adds depth but diffraction softens the whole picture beyond f/16 on most sensors.
A smartphone sensor is so small that its wide lens keeps almost everything sharp, which is why phones simulate background blur in software (portrait mode). Choose the smartphone format to see the real optical depth of field of a phone camera.
Pick the sensor format (common bodies are listed with each one), and metres or feet.
Start from a scenario or set the focal length, the aperture, the subject distance and how far the background is.
The preview shows the blur, the diagram the sharp zone, and the cards the exact limits, the hyperfocal distance and the framing.
For a blurred background, open the aperture, get closer to your subject and move it away from the background: the background distance matters as much as the f-number.
For front-to-back sharpness in a landscape, stop down to f/8–f/11 and focus at the hyperfocal distance rather than on the horizon.
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