Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

After reading the comments I decided to try a few edits on my own. As I did no mater what my eyes kept drawing to the farm house, not what I think you had in mind. IMO I think the picture is the whole thing in better focus or the flowers with background with out the house.

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

I think you are right. I walk my dog past this house about three times a week, so I have shot it many, many times. It does look better when it is in focus. I'll have to leave my out of focus area experimentation to other areas of the park. lol
Erich

NJFrank Loc: New Jersey

On your first shot my eyes went to the house. I found the flowers to be an afterthought. On your reshoot there was no question on who is the star of the shot. Well worth revisiting the site and doing the reshoot.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Taking the edge off of a background is one thing, using excessive blur to subdue eye-catching features is another. In your shot there is a basic conflict caused by the building. For a background feature it's very eye-catching but the blur makes it obvious it's not the intended focus of the viewers' attention. Attempting to use excessive blur to subdue the building isn't going to work.

Other techniques can be used to subdue backgrounds and/or objects that aren't the intended main subject, composition being one of the main ones. Excessive use of any one technique is rarely going to look right. And if a multi-pronged approach doesn't work either, the shot's not going to work.

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

Good point. Thanks for the comment. Useful information.
Erich

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

The more I look at it, I realize that the house is a bit too burry. The shot might work better if there were more detail but stull some blur. DOF is a tricky thing, and very tricky to get right. Thanks. Erich