Which Depth of Field Looks Better / General Criticism

[elemental]

I took a series of photos the other night, and decided to try both deep and shallow depths of field as I have been working on taking more control of this in my photography. These are two of the results. The first is f/4.0, the second is f/13.0. They were both taken with my K100D (my only camera) using the 18-55 kit lens, the first at 28mm and the second at 24mm. Barring the composition difference (I like the more open second one better), which aperture do you prefer?

Also, feel free to criticize the images, constructively or otherwise.


f/4.0:

f/13.0:

 

[lifeafter2am]

f/4 looks better in my opinion.

 

[Nurf]

i personally like the one with the smaller DOF.

 

[spiffybeth]

i like f/13.

too shallow for me in f/4

 

[lifeafter2am]

i like f/13.

too shallow for me in f/4

Now whos posting behind who?

 

[LaFoto]

I like the deeper DOF (f13). The background was chosen so it is not distracting, so it works for me that all of the little tea cones (nice kind of wrapping!!! ) are in focus. The photo looks clearer and the texture of both the cones and the threads with those little leaves comes out better.