Feedback, please :)

[myarc06]

I'm a beginner photography student and have an assignment to demonstrate shallow depth of field, is this photograph good? Thanks for your help :)

[Jeff]

Its a good photograph but I don't think it shows DoF as well as it could. You don't really know if there's 1 foot in focus or 20 feet in focus due to the distance of the background.

Try a shot of a computer keyboard or piano keys maybe where you can see a few keys in focus and ones before and after out of focus.

[chauncey]

Ditto :lol:

[SwingBopper]

Ditto 2. But I'd try shooting a face with eyes sharp nose and ears soft ... etc

[Levina de Ruijter]

I think you would want something with both the foreground and background out of focus, leaving just a small margin in focus (in which to put your subject). Here's what I mean. The photo isn't very good (bird is a bit soft), but it does demonstrate shallow DOF pretty well I think.

[neumanns]

But save that photo for the assignment on bokeh...

[myarc06]

Thanks everyone although I did have to look up bokeh. I thought I understood as I did these other 2 during the week but figured the doh wasn't accurate for the assignment and thought I nailed it (although the ring shot is kind of like the bird one). I will try again. I'll included the 2 I was talking about. I will keep working on it...thanks.

[myarc06]

okay been working...is this accomplishing the goal here? Thanks for the feedback :D

[MattMoore]

Try a newspaper or a book....find a line/passage/word you like and focus on that with the lens stopped up to the lowest (numerical) fstop your lens is capable of and focus on the part of the print you've selected.

Take the shot at a 45º from the page.

Something like this (just a quick shot to provide an example, this is by no means a good photo).

327993

[myarc06]

Okay so the wine bottle didn't work. Thanks for everyone's help guess I will figure it out.

Feeling frusturated...

[Metalstrm]

Try something with a background that is continuous with the foreground. The mistake (in my opinion, of course) that you're doing is having an object against a blurred background. Something like a street or anything with some perspective might look good.

[myarc06]

My assingment states to do this: Your subject should fill most of the frame, but some of the background should also be visible. Choose a location in which the background is busy and would be distracting if it were in focus, do not use a featureless background.

That's why I thought the Poinsetta photo or the wine one fit the description...hmmm.

thanks for all the advice :)

[Levina de Ruijter]

What you are describing here as your assignment is not to 'demonstrate shallow depth of field.' You just want a nice bokeh...

[Metalstrm]

How about some interesting sign (has to be very interesting) filling in most of the frame, but with a street in view, people and cars and whatnot, but all blurred? Ok, I just got stuck with this street idea, sorry. Hehe :)

[myarc06]

Sorry for the confusion.
Kristian- Yeah you are stuck on the street idea ;) LOL Definately an idea just not sure how interesting it will be out here in the Hamptons

[Jeff]

I think you have the idea. Just so we're working with the right definitions:
Depth of field: Area in focus
Bokeh: Smoothness of out of focus area

And by those definitions and Levina's comment, your first photo met the assigment. The background was not distracting because you can't tell what it is.

This may be just a terminology problem.

Here's another sample of shallow depth of field.