Now that we've talked about depth of field, let's throw in a related concept. This concept ties the technical concept of depth of field back to the artistic discussion of photo composition covered earlier.
What is bokeh and what does it have to do with depth of field?
Bokeh is "the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has been defined as "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light" ... Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field" (Wikipedia).
You can create bokeh simply by paying attention to depth of field and adjusting aperture settings. However, you can carry the concept further and create shapes in the out of focus parts of a photography. See video below. Note that there are smartphone apps for this as well.
"Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—"good" and "bad" bokeh, respectively" (Wikipedia).
So, how would you judge good or bad bokeh? Go back to the rules of composition covered earlier. For example, is the rule of simplicity important here? Colors important here? What would be a list of rules of composition that would be relevant to judging bokeh?
If you are curious, check out 40 Beautiful Examples of Bokeh Photography.
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). The videos are now a little dated, but still cover the basics well.