Camera Field of View Calculator

How to use "Framing a person"

In "Framing a person", change the person's height, the focal length, the distance to the subject or the camera orientation, and the preview above changes without reloading the page.

• A longer focal length, or getting closer, makes the person larger in the frame. A shorter focal length, or moving back, makes the person smaller.
• The taller the person, the harder it is to fit the whole body in the frame under the same conditions.
• Switching from landscape to portrait makes the frame taller, so a larger range fits vertically (on a full-frame camera, 3:2 becomes 2:3).
• When the head or feet fall outside the frame, the preview shows them cut off. The preview does not shrink the person to make the whole body fit. "Does the whole body fit?" also says which part is cut off, such as "the feet are cut off" or "the head and the feet are cut off".
• You can choose the aim: "Headroom" (leaves about 8% of the frame height above the head; the default) or "Center of body" (puts the middle of the person's height at the center of the frame). Headroom is close to the look of a typical full-body photo. When you change the focal length or the distance, the top of the head stays about 8% below the top edge of the frame as the picture scales. Because of the headroom, you need a slightly longer distance than with the center of the body (for example, for a person 160 cm tall with a 50 mm lens, a full-frame sensor and landscape orientation: about 3.33 m in theory with the center of the body, and about 3.62 m with headroom).

How to read the result

• Share of the frame height taken by the person = the person's height ÷ the vertical area covered. For example, a person 160 cm tall with 240 cm covered vertically takes about 66.7%. Above 100%, the whole body does not fit.
• Shortest distance for the whole body = the height needed × focal length ÷ the vertical sensor dimension. This is the theoretical distance with no margin above or below (it is rounded up to 0.1 m for display, so the displayed distance does fit the whole body). The height needed is the person's height for the center of the body, and "height ÷ 0.92" with headroom (the person fits in the frame height minus the 8% at the top).
• Recommended distance with margin is the shortest distance divided by 0.9 (the distance at which the height needed takes 90% of the frame height). With headroom, there is about 8% of space above the head and about 9% below the feet.
• "Does the whole body fit?" is decided with the values before they are rounded for display.

About this preview

• It assumes the camera is aimed so that, with "Headroom", the top of the head is about 8% below the top edge of the frame, and with "Center of body", the middle of the person's height is at the center of the frame. In a real photo, the height and tilt of the camera change how the person appears. The preview is a guide to the area covered.
• It is a simplified model of a still person photographed from the front. It does not reproduce changes in perspective, distortion at the edges of a wide-angle lens, lens distortion, depth of field or background blur.
• The person illustrations are display categories chosen by height (40 to 79 cm: infant, 80 to 119 cm: toddler, 120 to 149 cm: child, 150 cm and above: adult). They do not estimate a real age, and even the infant illustration shows the dimensions of a standing posture. The full height of the figure changes exactly with the height you enter.
• When the distance is 10 times the focal length or less, the error of the approximation grows and a notice is shown. The calculation is an approximation for a thin lens at a long distance, so an error can occur at longer distances too. The closest focusing distance of the lens is not taken into account.
• For a question such as "how far back must I stand to shoot a full-body photo with a 50 mm lens?", change the focal length and the distance and check the preview and the "shortest distance for the whole body".

How the angle of view and the area covered are calculated

The values are for a geometric ideal model (a pinhole camera) focused at infinity.

• Angle of view = 2 × atan(sensor dimension ÷ (2 × focal length))
• With the sensor width you get the horizontal angle of view, with the height the vertical one, and with the diagonal (√(width² + height²)) the diagonal one.
• Area covered = shooting distance × sensor dimension ÷ focal length (a ratio of similar triangles, used for the width, the height and the diagonal).
• Working backward (focal length needed) = shooting distance × sensor dimension ÷ length of the area you want to cover

The area covered and the focal length needed are calculated with exact fractions and no trigonometry (only the diagonal involves an approximated square root). Only the angle itself uses the inverse tangent (atan) in ordinary floating-point arithmetic; the result is aligned to the 10th decimal place and then rounded to the number of places you chose. When an angle would round to 0° or 180°, more places are shown.

The calculation for framing a person

• Vertical area covered = shooting distance × vertical sensor dimension ÷ focal length (the short side of the sensor in landscape orientation, the long side in portrait orientation).
• Share of the frame height = height ÷ vertical area covered (it does not depend on the aim).
• The whole body fits when both the top of the head and the soles of the feet are inside the frame. For the center of the body: height ≤ the vertical area covered. With headroom, the top of the head is placed 8% of the frame height below the top edge, so: height ≤ the vertical area covered × 0.92.
• Shortest distance for the whole body = height needed × focal length ÷ vertical sensor dimension (the height needed is the person's height for the center of the body, and height ÷ 0.92 with headroom).
• Recommended distance with margin = shortest distance ÷ 0.9

Everything is calculated exactly as fractions and rounded only for display.

Sensor sizes

The presets are the same sizes as in the 35mm Equivalent Focal Length Calculator: full frame 36 × 24 mm, APS-H 27.9 × 18.6 mm, APS-C (Canon) 22.3 × 14.9 mm and APS-C (Nikon DX) 23.5 × 15.6 mm. The sources and the date they were checked are on that page. Sizes differ a little between camera models, so entering the size from your camera's specification sheet is more accurate. For Micro Four Thirds and other formats, enter the size manually.

Examples (full frame, 36 × 24 mm)

• Area covered: 50 mm, full frame, shooting distance 3 m → width 2.16 m, height 1.44 m, diagonal about 2.596 m.
• Working backward: to cover a width of 2.16 m at a distance of 3 m, a full-frame camera needs a focal length of 50 mm.

How a real lens differs

• Manufacturer's stated values: an angle of view stated by a manufacturer may not match the calculated value. For example, Nikon describes the diagonal angle of view of a 50 mm lens on full frame as 46°, while this formula gives about 46.8°. The cause is not identified here.
• Distortion: lens distortion makes the area at the edges of the picture a little different from the calculation.
• Focus breathing: with some lenses, the angle of view changes when you focus closer. The formula here is for focus at infinity.
• The point the distance is measured from: the sensor plane, the front of the lens and so on. At close range, this changes the area covered.
• Stated focal length: the focal length marked on a lens is a nominal value and can differ a little from the real one. For a zoom lens it also differs by position on the scale.
• The part of the sensor in use: video crop, electronic stabilization and the aspect ratio setting make the part of the sensor that is actually used smaller than the nominal size.

Things to know

• Enter the focal length, the sensor dimensions, the distance and the length of the area as numbers greater than 0 (up to 9 digits before the decimal point and 6 decimal places).
• The unit of the shooting distance can be m, cm, mm, ft or in. The area covered is shown in the unit you choose. The framing preview uses cm for the height of the person and m for the distance.
• The diagonal length is approximated with an integer square root to 40 decimal places (the result is labeled "rounded value").
• To convert a focal length between sensor sizes, use the 35mm Equivalent Focal Length Calculator. For how much of the scene is in focus, see the Depth of Field Calculator.

Source

• Nikon (Japan) FAQ on the angle of view of a lens, the basis for the manufacturer's value of 46° mentioned above: https://nij.nikon.com/support/faq/products/article?articleNo=000059477 (checked October 26, 2026, while the original version of this tool was prepared; the page is in Japanese).

Frequently asked questions

What is the angle of view?

The range a camera can capture, expressed as an angle. There are three: horizontal, vertical and diagonal. When a lens specification just says "angle of view", it usually means the diagonal one.

What happens to the angle of view with a shorter focal length?

The angle of view gets wider (wide angle). With a longer focal length, it gets narrower (telephoto).

Why does the same lens give a different angle of view on different cameras?

Because the sensors are different sizes. The smaller the sensor, the narrower the angle of view at the same focal length.

How far back must I stand to photograph a whole person with a 50 mm lens?

For a person 160 cm tall, on a full-frame camera in landscape orientation with about 8% of headroom (the default setting of "Framing a person"), the whole body fits at about 3.62 m in theory (160 cm ÷ 0.92 × 50 mm ÷ 24 mm). The tool rounds up to 0.1 m and shows "about 3.7 m or more". If you also want a margin at the feet, about 4.03 m in theory (the tool shows about 4.1 m) is a guide. With "Center of body", it is about 3.33 m in theory. In portrait orientation the vertical area covered is larger, so with headroom you can get as close as about 2.42 m in theory (the tool shows about 2.5 m). You can check other conditions in "Framing a person".

Can I use it for photographing babies and children?

You can enter a height from 40 cm. The illustrations show the build of an infant, a toddler and a child. They show the dimensions of a standing posture, so they do not reproduce the area covered for a baby lying down or held in the arms.