Here I will show you some creative applications of Aperture when shooting. As mentioned before in Holy Trinity of Photography, Aperture is the size of the opening of the camera lens, and it controls the Depth of Field of a photograph. It is easier to show examples of Depth of Field than to explain it in words, please look carefully at the following three photographs:

Shot at aperture F22, all the lanterns are visible and sharp

Shot at aperture F11, the last few lanterns at the back start to show blurring

Shot at aperture F5, blurring starts to show from the fourth lantern onwards

Did you notice the differences in the three photos? I believe the effect is rather obvious at the extreme ends of the Aperture. At the biggest Aperture of F5, the Depth of Field is at its shallowest and blurring starts to show even at the middle layers of the photo. However at the smallest Aperture of F22, all the lanterns are visible and sharp.

This is akin to a person squinting their eyes in order to see something clearly. And what happens when a person squints their eyes? They are essentially closing the pupil of their eyes to a smaller opening (smaller Aperture) to better focus on the object, thus making it sharp and clear.

So should you forget how Aperture is applied in the Depth of Field of your photos, just remind yourself of people squinting their eyes, I assure you it will be that much easier to remember and apply Aperture to your creative shots.

So remember, a Big Aperture gives you Shallow Depth of Field and a Small Aperture gives you a Deep Depth of Field.

Now let's go out there and shoot some creative Aperture shots! :D