Old Fence

I do not know what you wanted to say but here goes. The selective focus seems not to work on this photo and the road being light as well as out of focus is too distracting. I would recommend taking the photo over with a much lower camera position which would hide the road behind the grass. I would stop down sufficiently to achieve critical sharpness of both posts, wire and grass. With the right camera position very little of the background elements would show except the dark area. It is always worth, in my opinion, to remember that the most important thing you do is the placement of your tripod. I believe a tripod is at least as much an aid to composition as it is a camera stability device. If what you wanted was to really give emphasis to the wood and wrapped wire of the near post than moving in much , mucn closer would have worked far better.

I like the differential focus on this photograph, but agree with Claire about the road, it is just too distracting, perhaps a different viewpoint would help? Also perhaps returning on a sunnier day would help to bring out the lovely texture on the old post?

All the Best, John.

This composition is rather nice; three parallel lines. The light tone of the road is a bit distracting but can be improved by some burning.

By using the selective focus as you have you are showing that nothing but that one post is supposed to hold your attention. But that doesn't mean that you can disregard the placement of everything that is out of fucus. It should all support that which has the center of attention.


The post on the right is distracting for two reasons. You have made the movement go to the out-of-focus post with the way the fence rail at the bottom, the barb wire and the road all trail off the the right. Taking attention off that which you have given most attention to. The other reason is: it fights for too much attention. If you had moved to make the in-focus post front and center with elements around the edges all supporting it, this would have been a very successful picture. You might also try facing the post head on, perpendicular to the road so you have a vertical layering of the grass, road, field and trees. You would have to find the perfect camera placement to get the edges right. That is where the tripod is essential, like Claire said.