You can use the Aperture of the Camera to control how much is in focus. The higher the Aperture the longer the depth of field and the more that is in focus closer to and further away than the object you are focused on.

Low or short depth of field

Only the hand that the camera lens is focused on is in focus. Everything firther away is out of focus. This photograph is taken using a low aperture 

classic portrait photograph where the person is in focus and the less important background is out of focus

These three photographs use a low depth of field and a low aperture to draw the viewers attention to one element of the photograph

These two photographs use a low aperture but the person focused on is far away so that the foreground and the background are both out of focus

It is harder to find examples of work of high aperture photography on the internet. It is easier to find examples of people using a low aperture to push things out of focus. The image above found using a google search shows the different between a low aperture ( f2.8 on the left) and a higher aperture (f16) on the right. It shows how changing the aperture changes the photograph

Edexcel A Level Photography Exam 2017 'Environment' Walker Evans Dor

Walker Evans was an American Photographer who was fascinated by recording the ordinary everyday things that he saw travelling around American. Taking photos from the 1930s onwards a lot of these images seem retro and fascinating now because the things that were everyday are not everyday now

1935 - 1937 Evans was comissioned by the American FSA (Farm Security Agency) to travel around Southern Sates of America recording a way of life that due to the American Depression and changes in farming was changing or dying out

Bud Fields and His Family, Hale County, Alabama, photograph by Walker Evans, c. 1936–37

More recently Walker Evans ( who died in the 1970s) and the other photographers employed by the FSA has been heavily criticised by descendents of the people he photographed. The families maintain that the shots were staged or set up to present them as barefoot hillbillies and that these photos showed them as lower class people and victims and they didnt represent the reality of their day to day lives

Edexcel A Level Art, Graphics, Photography Textiles Exam 2017 'Environment'

2017 Edexcel Art, Graphics, Photography & Textiles Exam title is Environment

These are screen grabs from the Exam Paper. We have a digital copy in school you can download it here (Student Shared\Art\A Level Exam 2017). Sadly this is only available to SJL students, A Level students from other schools will be able to collect their coy from their school from today