I'd like to see enough more DOF to get the salt shaker and all of the comment card in focus. Aside from that, this one almost works for me as it stands. I like the way the squared "V" in the bokeh contrasts the inverted "V" of the bottle and the top line of the comment card. I know you're not a lover of PP, but to increase elemental contrast, I'd do the following:
1) As mentioned, more DOF would help. Maybe you can use one of your other shots with more DOF for the foreground and blend it with this one, if the bokeh doesn't work as well on the other image.
2) I'd increase the brightness and saturation of the green and red of the bottle and perhaps sharpen the in focus elements a touch (or add clarity). I think I'd also boost the saturation of the comment card to offset it from the white background.
John
John, That's a fair call. One of the interesting things about shooting with a less than 2 inch DOF and close in is that you can see the exact limit of the band that's in focus and from that, deduce the angle of the camera to the subject. Yes, I like the correlation of the triangles between the bokeh and the bottle, and that's one reason not to increase the DOF. When I do that, I pick up too much detail behind the thing. There were people moving around back there, waiting to get into the restaurant, and including even a hazy image of that kills the thing. One possibility is to change the angle between the camera and the subject. I eat at that restaurant once a week, so I may do some more with this next week. It's something to do while I'm waiting for the pizza to cook.
I wish I had better control over the brightness and saturation in the image as it comes out on LLS. What I get back when I look at the posting is less bright and less saturated than the original before I uploaded it. I don't know why that is. I've gotten to the point where I raise the brightness before I upload, but it isn't enough. If I raise it too much I end up with a noisy result.
Thanks to all of you who responded. Still life is something I rarely do, and I was interested to see what kind of responses I'd get to this sort of casual shot that pleased me with I saw the result.