Frozenby
LoreneComment: Here we go!
It's pretty rare to find a challenge entry with 0 comments, so I'll give this my best.
I don't really care much for this pic myself. Here's why.
#1 - No major point of interest. There's nowhere for my eye to go to start, nowhere for it to go afterwards and nowhere interesting for me to think about afterwards.
#2 - That aside, I start looking for secondary points of interest. Rhythm is a major one that is common in shots like this, but the rhythm doesn't seem to be very strong here. The bubbles really took away from that.
That's about what it's lacking. The next bit is about what it has.
#3 - Hard edges. The picture has a look of being oversharpened and overprocessed. The edges are very hard and very sharp without adding anything (kinda like one of my own pics... my first submission). It looks like the pic is soft and has been sharpened too much. There's also a bit too much noise in it, but this is a minor issue.
So what can you do about it?
Suggestions:
#1 Stick your camera in f/5.6 or higher for better results in sharpness. I find that many small P&S cams get better results from f/4 to f/5.6. It's best to start with good results.
#2 Watch your lines... think about how your lines are going to appear in the picture and give a little consideration to flow.
#3 try to find some element that contrasts in your picture. Be it a color, an edge, the overal luminance of one part over another....
Try to use the dynamics of the composition to highlight that contrast.
This means that a light area could be opposite a dark area.
Further, you might choose to use the contrast of the two areas to create a line... diagonal lines flow better...
You've done something right in this pic because you have two different areas in the pic and they are separated into thirds... This is a good proportion for your contrast, although for this type of thing, thirds are not really essential.
A useful goal might be to use this contrast to try to bring some depth to the picture. Curved lines are fantastic for this purpose.
One interesting contrast that could be exploited in this one might be the smoothness of the ice cubes against the sharp edges of the salt crystals.
Probably would have to change the composition a fair bit to accentuate that though... currently, the ice cubes are something of a minor, background element...
These are just some ideas and are not rules carved in stone. Keep working at it!
Photographer found comment helpful.
