*Live* :: *$14.99*
by Annida

Comment by Kavey:
Critique Club


Initial thoughts
Out of focus. A little bland.

Composition/ Content/ Background
You�ve already mentioned focus in your own comments, so I am not telling you anything new when I say this image suffers from lack of sharp focus.
I do like the jewellery itself though I�d not know without you telling me that a) it�s jewellery as opposed to a fancy bottle tag and b) that it�s the main focus of the image.
Aspects I find offputting: the bottle does not seem to be entirely vertical within the image; the background would be better curved beneath the bottle to create a seamless background to the image; the colour of the background clashes with the two colours in the bottle; the composition is a little unbalanced � too close to centred to be successful as a non-centred composition but too far from centred to work as a centred composition; because the background is so �busy� I find the shadow on the background more interesting than the foreground object itself.

Camera Work - Technical
Focus, as above.
Might be worth playing with lighting � how about secondary lighting through the bottle from behind, what about softer lighting or perhaps harsher lighting providing some highlights off the bottle and jewellery?

Fits The Challenge
Not hugely, for me. I think that this would be the kind of thing which a jeweller might commission but would make little sense as a generic addition to a stock library � the jewellery is too prominent for it to be used as a generic bottle of perfume or alcohol.

My Opinion On The Photo
Would love to see this retaken with some changes as discussed above.

From Path to Tree to Sky
by Annida

Comment by Sonifo:
My eyes are led more to the building on the right. I like the effect you chose. Good luck.

*Live* :: *$14.99*
by Annida

Comment by lisae:
Annniiiiiiiida... I love what you did with our "live" pendant, but from looking at a lot of the other photos in the challenge so far, I can see that this seems more like an advertisement than a stock photo :/.

*Live* :: *$14.99*
by Annida

Comment by autool:
This artistic photo is enhanced by the white line in your frame. I feel that the background is a little overbearing, and I don't like the shadow. Not a bad job though. 5

For All Time
by Annida

Comment by kosmikkreeper:
Greetings from the CC gang!

THEME: Yes the photo does have some rhthym but IMO adding a few more would've made a stronger impact. Maybe you didn't have any more. :-)

COMPOSITION: Having them with the same distance between them would create better rhythm as well. One is overlapping and is distracting to the eye. Remember that rhythm is all about symetry. Cropping is fine to me.

LIGHTING: It seems a bit underexposed. Maybe decreasing shutter speed or adding more light sources would've helped.

General feeling... unfortunately this shot doesn't have any WOW factor to me. It would not be a shot that I would print out and hang on my wall.

I hope this helps!

Yanik

*Live* :: *$14.99*
by Annida

Comment by DougPaz:
Seems fairly grainey and soft on focus.

Commercially Happy Childhood
by Annida

Comment by muckpond:
CRITIQUE CLUB!

When I make these critiques, I try hard to form my opinion before scrolling down and reading what others had to say. Most of the time I have one or two unique things, but in this case it's almost all been said.

Great concept -- and very topical for the challenge. I also just really like the dishes and think they're fun.

My biggest suggestion for this photo would be to try and fix the lighting. The shadow inside the bowl is the most distracting, but upon looking longer at the photo, the glare on the rim of the bowl and the right of the glass are both pretty pronounced. For more even lighting, remove anything blocking the light on the left and try a lower-wattage bulb OR (my preference) some kind of diffuser on the light on the right (typing paper works well for a quickie -- use 2 or 3 sheets for really subtle light). Working with shiny objects is really really tough to avoid glare, but I used the typing paper trick on this photo.

That's about it. My only other comment is the border. I'm admittedly anti-border, but in this case I think a contrasting or more subtle color would be better. You want the border to help the photo pop out, but don't want it to compete with the image. Here, I think it gets in the way.

Keep on shootin'
Rob

*Live* :: *$14.99*
by Annida

Comment by clues56:
I am disappointed that you didn't include the entire bottle in the photo.

*Live* :: *$14.99*
by Annida

Comment by jmsetzler:
interesting shot... the focus seems to be a little soft for my personal taste though... - setzler

*Live* :: *$14.99*
by Annida

Comment by rmahan:
This is a nicely composed illustration although it is a bit grainy.