Depth of Field

Depth of Field (DOF) is the distance in front of a camera in which all elements are in sharp focus. Bright light and a narrow lens aperture tend to produce a larger DOF, as does using a wide-angle lens rather than a lens with a long focal length (telephoto lens).

Depth of field is directly connected, but not to be confused with, “focus,” which refers to the quality (i.e. the “sharpness”) of an object in the image. Whereas, DOF refers to the extent to which the space that is presented is in focus.

For related information, see the entries on shallow focus and deep focus.