It's been a realy long time since anybody posted in critique , possibly because replies have never been exactly bountiful. Nobody wants to say "Hey Bud that picture sucks" or if you don't have anything nice to say.....
I keep coming back to this shot and playing with it in a love hate struggle. There is something there that I like from an art angle but other things that bug me from a technical photography point of view.
One thing that keeps hitting my hate button is the fact that it looks like I used selective color but I didn't , its just a graduated filter and the funky sky is a big part of what I like.
I'm considering printing it but keep going back & forth.
So my friends please give me some honest critiques on this thing and that means if you think it sucks ....say so!!!!

It doesn't look like selective color to me. I absolutely love the angle you captured, and the look of the greenery and fence. However the sky strikes me as really odd. It's the second thing that draws my eye, but for the wrong reason. To me it looks like someone blew out the clouds and then applied too much highlight recovery to try and bring it back from pure white. If it had texture or... something other than flat gray, then it would be the perfect complement to the lower half of the image. But as a big gray featureless blob of indeterminate origin, I find it distracting.

p.s. I am aware that the cloud was not blown out and then over-recovered, otherwise there wouldn't be that gradient there from the graduated filter, I'm just describing the way it looks to me.

I'll start with what I like about this image. The texture and clarity are nice. It has a soft lighting quality, and the saturation level is appropriate for that.

If it were my image, I would be bothered by two things:
1) The sky is a bit funky. It does sort of look like selective color, and I personally think that looks odd. Why not pull something from your cloud file, like a sweeping windy sky, and drop it in? I use different skies in my work often to amplify a certain mood. I would also keep the sky a soft, muted gray-blue.
2) The horizon line. Do you have any outtakes were you shot from a lower vantage point? The fence does not stand above the horizon line, and therefore blends into the hill.

I hope this gives you a fresh perspective!

I'm not very partial to this image. The foreground is dark and the angle on the fence is uninteresting to me. The horizon is right at midway and if you apply the rule of thirds this doesn't meet it. I considered some crops but it just doesn't some work for me. I'm not sure more PP work on this would help either. It's just not compelling to me. What was your vision here?

You're a brave soul to ask for criticism.

To be honest I don't find the image interesting. I don't see enough detail or subject matter that would compel me to keep it. There isn't enough of the fence or maybe we're seeing it at an odd angle. Taken from a lower angle perhaps might help. And the sky looks weird; washed out or 'shopped in - or something. And it seems almost exactly half sky and half ground. It needs to be not 50/50 sky/ground.

Not to be cruel, but you asked and I just don't like it.

I would try cropping out a lot of the sky and also from the right so the fence is closer to the edge of the frame. I don't know that it will save it though.

Tiff one of the things that keeps bringing me back to this was an earlier cropping experiment. Square it has a 1970's album cover vibe . Kinda like Late For The Sky meets Houses Of The Holy.
Other than that I'm not going to say anything at this point in hopes of more input.

OK, DR, since you're asking outright...

This image does nothing for me.

As others have pointed out, the 50/50 split of sky and land here is a textbook example NOT being an exception to the rule of thirds. The horizon being dead center makes the composition exceedingly static, and effect which is exacerbated by the fact the big expanse of sky is nearly featureless and colorless.

I'm going to go a step further on the sky's coloring and say that it looks not only like selective color, but like selective color that was started and not completed. In addition to the aesthetic issue that I find it just looks bad, the irregular strip of blue near the horizon calls attention to the manufactured nature of photography. The sky doesn't look funky to me. It looks like it's not done.

Regarding the fence, I feel your angle was ill chosen. You shot from above, so the fence is almost completely backed by the ground instead of against the sky, where it'd have contributed some needed shape and contrast. Also, you shot almost in a direct line along the fence, further concealing the shape. A pity, as I can just barely make out the fence is an interesting landscape feature in person and could look great in a photo if shot differently.

All that said, I can kind of see what you mean by a 70's album cover vibe, but in my opinion that springs from the fact you were in an interesting location when you took this photo, not the qualities of the photo itself.

My honest opinion is that you're wasting your time pouring over this photo trying to find a way to make it work for you. Cropping can change composition, but not angles. The effort would be much more profitably spent going back to the same location if possible with a fresh perspective and take some new photos. It looks like an interesting place. If it were me there, I'd shoot wider and lower to feature the shape of the fence against the sky and use it as the anchoring feature of the image.

Thanks to all who responded. Honest critique is what I asked for and got.
"The truth will set you free"- in this case of messing with this picture

1. Well done for offering an image up for critique.
2. I was both interested in the responses on your image and learned a few things too.
3. I think this is a fair minded group and I'm feeling like you asked for and got the honest critique you requested.
4. It does prompt me to think that a periodic review of a member image would be a good thing too. Perhaps a weekly thread - That was the critique that was?

Again, thanks for this opportunity to provide you with cheap advice!