Exercise Focus at different apertures

Here are a series of 3 photo's taken with different apertures to show the changing depth of field (area of focus with relation to distance). I laid out some of my African chess pieces along the garden wall. The blueness to the pics was a 'happy accident' as I'd left the white-balance on 'Incandescent' then took the camera outside, but I quite like the atmosphere it's created. A small aperture (high f.stop) increases the range of focus within the depth of the picture to keep the foreground and background sharp (this is because a small aperture 'hole' will only accept more 'parallel' light rays from the subject). A lower f.stop (bigger hole) gives a much shorter range of depth where the image is sharp and softens the areas outside this range. I love the effect this has and gives a much more artistic feel to the photo and draws the eye to the subject.

Narrow depth of focus f .5.0

   Wider depth of focus f. 14

  Widest depth of focus f.29