Lighting/Texture

Shooting with an older low quality zoom lens gave a small amount of natural vignetting, which I increased in post process.

Changing up the angle I was shooting at allowed for different amounts of direct and ambient sunlight which greatly affected the textured detail of the sign. Using a shorter exposure and smaller aperture to compensate for increased direct sunlight resulted in the sky becoming much darker.

Focus

Photos shot wide open using a lens that allows focal shifts to maximize blur. First I tried focusing on different parts of the sign's lettering, in an attempt to give the flat word 'STOP' a feel of motion. Then I stepped back and took a few photos with the stop sign in focus and traffic out of focus, followed by the traffic in focus and the sign blurred. The first gives the cars an appearance of moving more quickly, while the latter makes it look as though vehicles have been caught driving through a stop sign.

Photographic Perspectives