The paper deals with the measurement and identification of surfaces after machining in a non-contact manner. It presents a new modified measurement method and its implementation, the results of intensity distribution in the defocusing plane, their analysis and interpretation. The scanned intensity distribution at the defocusing plane gives information necessary to assess the second derivatives, and thus, surface functions which can be used to determine groove curvatures of the real surface morphology. The proposed method of measurement has proved to be very sensitive in evaluating the differences between surface finishing methods by which the measured surface standards (etalons) were machined. Two methods of machining were chosen: face grinding and planning. By comparing the roughness standard values