This brief doesn't say anything about NOT using my Raynox DCR-250 Macroscopic lens taped crudely to the Olympus kit lens, right?

A sieve, some socks, on a desk recently. Just in case anyone was wondering.
I chose these things, and particularly the sieve, to be able to see through it and place the socks behind (or in) it to change the background colours.

I actually find the clearer background more attractive with this shot, and yet still nicely blurred as to not distract from the focused area. Surprising, as I always assumed a shallow DoF required a large aperture, but that was before I learnt about the influence and effect of the distance of the subject from the lens; as well as the distance of the lens to the sensor/film - oh wait, I meant the depth of focus. Erm, I think.

Hang on, according to an article on Wikipedea talking about depth of focus vs depth of field, they say: "In the macro region, depth of focus increases with longer focal length or closer subject distance, while depth of field decreases."
Diprose and Robins (2012) also underline the difference: "While it is true that both are concerned with how much of the picture is acceptably in focus, and both will increase as the lens aperture is shut down, the two terms do not mean the same thing.". They then go on to summarise quite nicely how, "Depth of field is outside the camera..." and that: "Depth of focus occurs inside the camera..."
I think I got it.

I think this slideshow clearly demonstrates how closing the aperture (oh sorry, I meant stopping down) unmistakably sharpens the background (but also the foreground too as the DoF becomes slowly deeper even with the macro lens).

The last three shots here were some simple experiments with different focus points on the surface of the sieve; Shot A with a more central placing of the focus, and B being closer to the camera, and, finally, C with the focus aimed right on the "edge" of the sieve creating a lovely strong breakaway point between foreground and the equally lovely background colour. I moved the coloured socks around to try to create some effects and noticed how the turquoise/teal colour worked well with the gold of the sieve (something that I have tried before although not with these colours)
The use of 'lovely' being naturally subjective here, I hasten to add.

• Wikipedia, 2015, Depth of Focus, [online], Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_focus [accessed 30/03/2016]
• Wikipedia, 2016, Depth of Field, [online], Available at:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field  [accessed 30/03/2016]
• Diprose, G. and Robins, J. (2012). Photography : the new basics. London: Thames & Hudson.