10s Aperture- Depth of Field Assignment

Aperture is ‘the opening in the lens.’
The aperture number that you set your camera to impacts the size of the lens opening. The larger the lens opening, the more light that gets in – the smaller the hole the less light.

Aperture is measured in f-stops- f1, f 2, f 2.8, f 4, f 5.6, f 8, f11, f16, f 22, f 32, f 64. 

Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in your lens (and the amount of light getting through). Keep in mind that a change in shutter speed from one stop to the next doubles or halves the amount of light that gets in also – if you increase one and decrease the other you let the same amount of light in.

Large apertures (where lots of light gets through) are given f/stop smaller numbers and smaller apertures (where less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers. So f/2.8 is in fact a much larger aperture than f/22

Depth of Field (DOF) or range if focus is that amount of your shot that will be in focus.  

Large depth of field (f11 and above) means that most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away. A landscape shot above has an aperture of f/16 produces a sharp image from the background to the foreground.

Small (or shallow) depth of field means that only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy. You’ll see in it that the subjects eyes are in focus but the background is blurred. Even her hair which is only a little behind her eyes is blurred. This is a very shallow depth of field and was taken with an aperture of f1.8).


Depth of Field Assignment- Take a series of photographs where you manipulate Depth of Field (range of focus) by adjusting the aperture on your camera. Set your camera to Av or Aperture priority and change the aperture settings for each photo with the dial.

Set up visually interesting scenarios that have visual depth/distance and a strong subject and background relationships.

For each scenario, you are to take a series of photos for each scene you choose starting from the lowest aperture setting to the highest- only using the standard F-stops. Take the same photo each time only with a different f-stop. (Watch when your shutter drops below 1/60).
Then take some photos and experiment with your aperture so that you have an example of short, medium and long depth of field, (low # on your aperture dial, medium and high). Then create compositions using appropriate depth of field settings that would work best for the subject.

Make a contact sheet of 25-35 photos shoot at least 3 different scenarios using the smallest aperture, medium, and largest, then experiment with your aperture for the rest.

Then post and label one (or more) of each (short, medium, long) in your journal/blog.

For more information on Aperture and Depth of Field visit Digital Photography School site.