Aperture and Depth of Field

Depth of Field - The difference between the nearest and furthest objects giving a focused image.

Aperture - a space through which light passes in an optical or photographic instrument, especially the variable opening by which light enters a camera.

Aperture is important because it can affect the sharpness or blurriness of  a photograph. For example, if you are aiming to take a landscape photograph and want to bring about a sharpness of the photo, a high aperture is needed to achieve this.

Main Apertures: f 2.8, f 4, f 5.6, f 8, f 11, f 16, f 22, f 32, f 64

A shallow depth of field uses a low number f stop such as 2.8 to bring about a focused image while blurring out the background.

Aperture Comparison

These are photographs that I have taken to demonstrate how a change in aperture can affect the sharpness and blurriness of a photograph. 


The photograph on the left side brings out the post on the left side since there is an aperture of f5.6. However the photograph on the right has a high f stop of 22 which keeps most of the image in focus. This shows how an adjustment in aperture can change the appearance of a photograph in terms of sharpness and blur. 



This principle also applies to this photograph. There was also a low f stop f 5.6 used to bring out the bark on the left photograph while on the right photograph, every detail is sharp because of the high f top used of f 22.