Using Depth of Field to Enhance Your Photos

Once you’ve learned the basics of creating a photograph and you start to experiment with creating more imaginative images, changing the depth of field starts to enter into the
process. Depending on how much of the image that you want in focus will determine what depth of field to use. (This is purely subjective, since only you know what you are trying to
achieve in the photo.)

What is depth of field?
Simply put, it is the distance between the closest and farthest objects in a photo that appears acceptably sharp. In every photo, there is a certain area of the image both in front of and behind the subject that will appear in focus. A deep (or large) depth of field is used for landscape images, while a shallow (or small) depth of field is used in portraiture, so if  you want to include a lot of detail in your photo, use a deep depth of field; if you want to isolate your subject from the background, use a shallow depth of field In the images below, the depth of field starts out deep and gradually goes to shallow, to illustrate the difference in f/stops.