Trying to do better. C&C please

[KmH]

The reason wide apertures usually result in soft focus is because the edges of the lens front glass elements are thinner than the middle of the front glass elements. The difference in lens thickness makes the point of focus from the edges fall at a slightly different distance than the point of focus from the middle of the lens.

Lens designers add additional lens elements to correct that focus point imbalance, but it cannot be completely eliminated without causing other optical aberration issues.

Stopping down eliminates using that thinner part of the lens.

 

[Dun_Properly]

The softness issue has already been covered. Picture #1 to me would have been much better if you didn't cut off the the left side of the barn, and I prefer version #2 as you got rid of the yellowish cast. Picture #2 seems sharper but doesn't nearly have the interest to me as the 1st picture does. Perhaps increase the size of the barn as it's the main subject of the photograph.

Very helpful critique.

I would not have guessed that those images came from a top lens, F2.8 for landscape :er:

Nearly 7,000 posts and this is your idea of C&C? Why even post?

 

[KmH]

My DoF was too shallow

No, your DOF was effectively infinite, and was far from being shallow. I'm afraid you don't yet understand DoF.

I'd guess you were about 1000 feet from the barn. You used f/2.8 and a 130 mm focal length.

DoF is not just about the lens aperture. It's also about how far away the point of focus is.

DoFMaster.com indicates the near focus limit was about 500 feet in front of the focus point, and infinite behind the focus point.

Larger apertures, like f/2.8, and closer focusing distances produce a shallow depth of field.

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

Did you do the edit on #1 from scratch, or did you run an action (a recorded sequence of edits) someone wrote?

 

[KmH]

I would not have guessed that those images came from a top lens, F2.8 for landscape :er:

Nearly 7,000 posts and this is your idea of C&C? Why even post?

With only 5 posts, and zero credibility as yet, you don't have you a lot of room to manuver. :lmao:

Clearly the OP does not yet understand how lenses, DoF, and image editing work.

For landscape work the lens apertures in the lenses focus sharpness sweet spot range are more appropriate.

A GND or CPL filter on the lens doesn't hurt either.