Shallow Depth of Field

2009-10-08-080.jpg
Originally uploaded by crob

If you're wondering what the aperture setting on your digital SLR camera does...well, here's an example.

The aperture setting controls Depth of Field - this is the space behind and in front of the point of focus that is also in focus.

Wide apertures (small numbers) result in SHALLOW depth of field while narrow apertures (large numbers) result in DEEP depth of field.

This image was captured with an aperture setting of f/3.5 (pretty wide open) which is why only a small portion of the image is in sharp focus and the rest fades off into blur.