spearmintby
wavelengthComment by CEJ: Hello from the Critique Club!
I have studied your image and have the following to offer:
Composition/perspective - your angle to the subject is good and your height is not too high that it appears flat. The subject occupies a lot of space which, in my opinion, takes away from the ability to meet the challenge well (more below). On the other side of that though, by being so close it allows you to get the detail you have here to be so clean and crisp. Your focus is good which allows the whole image to have the same 'feel.' But there is no real mood or force in the shot. The background has a lot of texture - it appears as though you have this laying on sugar or a similar substance. If it was more uniform it may have helped, but rough and bumpy I find to be a bit of a distraction. Plus I am always drifting to the reflections around your subject. Perhaps a flat white background would be worth a try.
Lighting - the lighting used here is very well done. You have two reflective surfaces and you were able to shoot with no flares/glares or any real blown out areas. Nice job!
Color - in a light on white I would not expect to see a lot of color and the use of foil in your subject would have been enough without exposing the gum stick at all. OR...eliminate the wrapper completely and just have the gum itself on the background. I think the creative concept here was lost on most viewers though (see below).
Challenge requirements - this does meet the challenge requirements. In fact, you have an interesting effect here - what I will call the 'layered' look. The gum on the inside of the wrapper is light on white while the wrapper itself is also light on white. I think this concept was not picked up by the viewers. Based on my impressions, I would assume people were put off by ratio of subject to background and never quite got the 'layered' aspect. This, I think, is an excellent creative element. Perhaps if you were farther away from the subject and just a tad higher above it (not too much to make it look flat) the impression would have been stronger and the background less distracting.
Overall/my opinion - technically you have a very clean image here. As stated above I just think the subject is too big in the scene to grab peoples attention long enough to look at the details and see the creative elements in the shot. The background choice was not the best either. There is a distinct black spot in the shot as well which serves as a minor distraction since it is the only really dark object in the shot. Thus, it really stands out. I think you have demonstrated a good creative thought process and a good execution of that thought process overall, it just didn't grab people as it should have.
Photographer found comment helpful.
