My two new lenses came in today. This photo was shot with my new Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS. To get a feel for the depth of field with the new lens, I shot at f2.8, and I'm happy to say that I'm getting the softness I wanted in the background, especially at 200mm. Much of the background was cropped out of this photo since it added no value, but I was very pleased with all of the test shots I took. Were it not for a very ugly trash barrel next to this bench, I'd have used the other lens - a Canon 16-35mm f2.8L - to photograph the other bench along with it. As old as this bench appears, the other one is brand new and has a very shiny gloss finish to it. The contrast would have been interesting. As it is, we'll need to stick with just this single bench. I can almost picture Ruth Buzzi and Arte Johnson sitting on it. This bench is at the War Memorial Park on Farnum Pike in Smithfield.
While I really liked the bench right out of the camera, I couldn't resist doing just a little post processing on it. First, I removed the bright edge of the trash lid from the side of the photo. No matter how I cropped it, that edge would've been there, and believe me, it was distracting. I then added a black-white-black gradient with a color blend mode. A slight levels adjustment brought out the right contrast, and a warming filter completed the image.
