Depth of Field # 3: Example

Okay, so i clicked a few pictures at home today to kind of prepare a tutorial on depth of field. The idea is to explain how the background becomes clear or unclear depending on the aperture you use. The depth of field not only depends on the f-number but also on the distance between the camera and the subject, and the subject and the background. In my example, I have a coffee mug in the foreground and a calendar on the wall in the background. Notice how the numbers on the calendar become clearer with smaller apertures (click the pictures to enlarge them).

Note: I used a tripod to take these pictures because as you decrease the aperture, the shutter speed increases, causing the camera to shake. I took these pictures with a 2 second self timer on the tripod.

f-number: 5
f-number: 7.1
f-number: 9
f-number: 11
f-number: 16
f-number: 20
f-number: 25
f-number: 32

Depth of Field # 2

Here's another set of a fridge magnet. Both the pictures were taken with f-number 5.6. I am thinking now that I should have tried other f-numbers here just to see the difference.

Shutter speed: 1/15
Shutter speed: 1/25

Depth of Field # 1

I think I am fascinated by pictures with shallow depth of field. I experiment a lot with larger apertures to get the background to blur. I have learned a valuable lesson after a lot of experimentation: larger aperture = (more) blurry background. I know I am leaving out lots of details here, but I guess there is no point in providing information that is readily available on so many good websites.

f-number: 6.3; Shutter speed: 1/125
f-number: 6.3; Shutter speed: 1/100