Vintage lights of paris

[abasu]

EXIF DATA
Camera Model Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
Shooting Date/Time 28-04-2009 23:56:27
Shooting Mode Shutter-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/20
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
Metering Mode Center-Weighted Average Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 100
Lens 18.0 - 55.0 mm
Focal Length 55.0 mm
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto

I want to know if the composition and exposure is correct or not. My subject was the lampost only .Is there is too much distractions in the background? Or is it OK.
It was a cloudy evening and I have only one 18-55mm kit lens with me. At 55mm focal length I cannot increase my aperture further and reduce the depth of field.
Please help me out if the image can be cropped and made better.

[harsh.kataruka]

Hi,

Yeah.. i do feel the clutter behind is quite distracting for the photo..

Maybe u can try a close vertical crop and not try n get the whole of the lamp post ( maybe jus take the top half )

I dunno, but maybe u can try n see how it looks..

the sky looks a bit drab, although the grey adds little drama but its missing the dynamic n massive clouds.. but i guess, that could not be helped at that time..

this is jus my opinion.. maybe it'll help..

[DannyTheNiceGuy]

My eyes were first drawn to the lamp post which is good because that's your main subject. The reason why is that it looks so tall and the 3 lamps on top is interesting as compared to original lamp posts we see everyday (where I live). To me, I think clouds MAY be distracting but a more clear blue sky can look nice. Not so sure so if you live in Paris, maybe u can go back and try out different time of days or when it's sunny, cloudy, and/or different angles. See what you like out of those pictures you can take.

[AlanWillis]

I'm not sure what you could have done about the DOF if f5.6 is the wides ap on that lense; but DOF is also a function of focal length and focus distance. I don't know how much you've cropped. If you had considerable vertical space that you've cropped out, you could have possibly gotten closer to the subject and shortened the DOF that way (of course, if you have not cropped, getting closer would mean you would have to use a wider angle and that would increase your DOF thus counteracting the decrease you might gain by a closer focusing distance).

Nevertheless, I do like the lamposts, and the only thing I find really distracting is the scaffolding. If you cropped that out I think it would be much improved (of course, this would make the image a "nonstandard" size if you plan on printing it).

Just my farthing's worth of thoughts.