Focus at Different Apertures

After a planned trip to Telford shopping centre, I visited the town park where I hoped to gather images suitable for these introductory exercises. I found this wooden fencing which I thought would be ideal for showing the depth of field at different apertures, and the small details in the wood would help me to discern fine sharpness more easily. I mounted my camera on a tripod, and used my kit lens to take the following shots at different apertures. I chose a focal length that was suitable for the framing I wanted to achieve, and used aperture priority mode to allow my camera to adjust the shutter speed as necessary to maintain the same exposure for all three photographs.

38mm, f/4.8, 1/640, ISO 200

38mm, f/11, 1/125, ISO 200

38mm, f/32, 1/15, ISO 200

The wooden post on the far left and the greenery on the far right are excellent indicators of sharpness in these pictures. In the first image both objects are clearly out of focus, but in the last image everything in the frame is mostly sharp (although I know from previous experience that defraction can be an issue at very narrow apertures, this is something I'll research in more depth and bolster my knowledge on). When the prints are processed I'll more clearly be able to discern where the sharpness boundaries lie.