BLOG QUESTION ADV: DEPTH OF FIELD P. 2

1. What is the circle of confusion?

2. How does this affect what the viewer of the image perceives overall?
3. How does the camera's sensor come into play with the circle of confusion? Why?

The circle of confusion is how big a spot of light caused by imperfect focus is before it's noticeable as "out of focus". This affects how the viewer perceives the image by determining what appears to be sharp or not. If the circle is larger, the image appears blurrier or out of focus. If it's too small, the image will appear too sharp. Even if you have identical lenses and apertures, the smaller the camera's sensor, the shallower depth of field you'll have. This is because there is less amount of light being let into the camera. The size of the circle of confusion is related to the sensor size since a larger sensor captures a larger image. The larger the image, the larger the circle of confusion has to be.