Please CC my shot

My gas grill from the deck...

Usually when you have a photo with shallow depth of field, the viewer expects to find some sort of visual pay-off at the point of sharpest focus. The photo is essentially saying, "hey, look here!" With this photo, however, there isn't anything special for us to find at the point to which you have directed our attention. Perhaps you could try shooting it again with something on the grill at that location?

^+1

I would shoot this at a smaller aperture.

Sorry to say, but this looks like a class assignment: "Go out and take a shot that demonstrates depth of field." It doesn't do more than that. It's a common type of image that people who buy wide aperture lenses are driven to take. The background in the top left corner is distracting.

^^^ +1 ^^^
Now you know how this lens handles bokeh at this aperture setting.

joedlh wrote in post #14555146
Sorry to say, but this looks like a class assignment: "Go out and take a shot that demonstrates depth of field." It doesn't do more than that. It's a common type of image that people who buy wide aperture lenses are driven to take. The background in the top left corner is distracting.

Joe for my sake, not the sake of the OP can you expand on why that is? The "type" of image specifically...

smitroc wrote in post #14555435
Joe for my sake, not the sake of the OP can you expand on why that is? The "type" of image specifically...

Smitroc:

Let me take a stab at that.

This picture has little interest to the average viewer. There are no leading lines that take you to a subject of interest. Because of the lack of a strong subject, the remaining interest in the photo is the bokeh (depth of field) demonstration.

The bokeh (DOF) varies with distance to the subject and aperture settings. At some settings, you can get DOFs that can be measured in millimeters. In other settings, the in-focus DOF can be feet or miles. This type of picture demonstrates the DOF characteristics of photography.

I am interested in DOF pictures with my camera to help me determine where my lenses actually focus. Then I can make the micro adjustments to fix lens error. Just last night I was shooting piano, harpsichord, and organ keyboards at the front of a church from the balcony to get a better understanding of my 70-200 lens.

Joe, please chime in with your views, too.

cpam.pix wrote in post #14555668
Smitroc:

Let me take a stab at that.

This picture has little interest to the average viewer. There are no leading lines that take you to a subject of interest. Because of the lack of a strong subject, the remaining interest in the photo is the bokeh (depth of field) demonstration.

The bokeh (DOF) varies with distance to the subject and aperture settings. At some settings, you can get DOFs that can be measured in millimeters. In other settings, the in-focus DOF can be feet or miles. This type of picture demonstrates the DOF characteristics of photography.

I am interested in DOF pictures with my camera to help me determine where my lenses actually focus. Then I can make the micro adjustments to fix lens error. Just last night I was shooting piano, harpsichord, and organ keyboards at the front of a church from the balcony to get a better understanding of my 70-200 lens.

Joe, please chime in with your views, too.

Can you comment on the bolded portion of the quote? What do you mean by "where my lenses actually focus"?

re: I am interested in DOF pictures with my camera to help me determine where my lenses actually focus.

Lens manufacturing is not perfect. Even with Canon lenses there are variances. On some cameras (usually the pro bodies), manufacturers add a feature called micro adjustment that allows you to compensate for the slight variances in the lens. In the 1Dm3, for example, I can set micro-adjustments from -20 to +20 units for all lenses or for each lens. Then when I put a lens on, the camera body remembers the calibration I made and automatically applies the settings.

Here's a link to a short video advertising Focus Pyramid (no endorsement implied...i've never used/seen one) that explains it nicely: http://vimeo.com/33437​835.

Here's a link to another alignment product that someone here sold: https://photography-on-the.net …193&highlight=c​alibration

At least one POTN member has also developed a lens calibration tool that can be purchased on the site (can't find a link).

Understood... I suppose where I was really trying to go was the subject matter that you were using to test this, but when I just re-read it, I saw that you were shooting the keyboards; initially thought you were just shooting the piano, organ, etc as a whole, and I didn't follow where that would help at all. Would it be any easier to shoot something like a ruler for this? That's what I've used in the past to ensure that the focus mechanism was working correctly or at all (specifically after receiving a used lens in the mail that I'd recently purchased).

^ What Cpam said.

drvnbysound wrote in post #14561892
Understood... I suppose where I was really trying to go was the subject matter that you were using to test this, but when I just re-read it, I saw that you were shooting the keyboards; initially thought you were just shooting the piano, organ, etc as a whole, and I didn't follow where that would help at all. Would it be any easier to shoot something like a ruler for this? That's what I've used in the past to ensure that the focus mechanism was working correctly or at all (specifically after receiving a used lens in the mail that I'd recently purchased).

Yes, that would have been easier and likely more precise. But, I had the opportunity to shoot the keyboards because I was shooting a flute recital from the balcony.

Shooting a ruler is a bit more sterile than shooting the keyboards from afar. I'm also trying to determine on what exat point(s) the camera locks focus. That would take "real world" (if you call keyboard shots between the performances "real world") shooting situation.

cpam.pix wrote in post #14563896
Yes, that would have been easier and likely more precise. But, I had the opportunity to shoot the keyboards because I was shooting a flute recital from the balcony.

Shooting a ruler is a bit more sterile than shooting the keyboards from afar. I'm also trying to determine on what exat point(s) the camera locks focus. That would take "real world" (if you call keyboard shots between the performances "real world") shooting situation.

Yeah, if you are already there it only make sense to shoot away

smitroc wrote in post #14555435
Joe for my sake, not the sake of the OP can you expand on why that is? The "type" of image specifically...

Here is another image of that 'type' I took when I first got my 70-200.. I couldn't stop looking at it because I thought the bokeh was so clean, but when I showed it to people, the response was pretty much the same: meh!

As good as the bokeh is, there is just not enough payoff when viewing the image.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/44350103@N05/5​327575668/