Food Photography Setup Calculator

This calculator handles two separate concerns in food photography: getting the right amount of the dish in focus, and making sure the final image will print sharp at your target size. Depth of field is derived using a hyperfocal-distance approach — the circle of confusion is set from sensor width divided by 1500 (a standard approximation; a full-frame 36mm sensor width gives a ~0.024mm circle of confusion), which combines with your aperture and focal length to find the hyperfocal distance, and then the near and far focus limits at your actual focus distance. Shallow apertures like f/2.8-4 (suited to hero shots with creamy background blur) will show a DOF of a few centimeters or less at close range, while f/8-11 flat lays extend that considerably.

The calculator also estimates field of view width at your focus distance using a close-range approximation (sensor width × focus distance ÷ focal length), useful for framing a full spread. On the print side, it estimates megapixel count assuming a standard 3:2 sensor aspect ratio, then divides available horizontal pixels by your target print width to get DPI, rating the result Low/Acceptable/Good/Excellent against common print-quality thresholds (300 DPI being professional-grade), and separately reports the maximum width you could print at a clean 300 DPI. Finally it suggests a shutter speed assuming a typical controlled studio exposure value of EV 10 at ISO 100 — a reasonable starting point for softbox or strobe lighting, but not a substitute for metering your actual setup, since real studio brightness varies with modifier distance and power.