Following on from the last post on aperture I am going to explain Depth of field often abbreviated as DOF

The aperture controls the depth of field in a photograph and in simple terms can be explained as below:

• large aperture = narrow depth of field
• small aperture = broad depth of field

Depth of field is the items in the photograph that will be in focus and depending on where you want the  focus to be will control what aperture you use.

• small numbers (i.e F-stops) mean a shallow depth of field so an F stop of 1.8 will be a shallow depth of field meaning you will focus on the object in the picture and the background will be blurred

• large numbers(i.e F.stops) mean a broad depth of field so an F stop of F22 will be a broad depth of field meaning that everything within the view of your camera lens will be in focus

My examples as below

first showing a shallow depth of field where the items at the back are not focused and then broad depth of field where everything is in the shot