Aperture and Depth of Field

During a recent visit to the lake, as the dog and I were strolling through the forest next door, I decided to play with the aperture settings on my camera. After settling on looking up a poplar tree for my experiment, I rested the camera body on the tree and aimed my 50mm macro lens up towards the sky.

First, I wanted a very narrow depth of field, so I set my f-stop quite low. This meant the aperture was wide open, letting lots of light in:

1/400 sec at f/3.5, ISO 400, Sony a55 w/50 mm macro lens

Then, to see how the same photo would look like with a wider depth of field, I opted for a larger f-stop. This meant the aperture was narrower, not letting in as much light.  I was having trouble focusing on the same spot as the last photo, so while it’s not a perfect compassion, it still works.

1/100 sec a f/11, ISO 400, Sony a55 w/50 mm macro lens

You can tell the difference in light by the shutter speed difference between the two shots.  I don’t know about you, but I kind of like the abstract nature of the first shot.