Was planning on doing a big setup with a fancy dessert on the last day, got in my car after work and click.... Spend 3.5 hours working on it and it is still stranded. Got home and wasn't in the mood but haven't been participating much and wanted to enter this challenge so I did a quick setup, shot and edit. Nothing special here so don't expect much from the score.
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Place: 26 out of 51 Avg (all users): 5.4701 Avg (commenters): 6.4167 Avg (participants): 5.4194 Avg (non-participants): 5.4884 Views since voting: 412 Views during voting: 245 Votes: 117 Comments: 14 Favorites: 0
This is really quite lovely! Nice lighting, fun background. I would have like just a tad softer shadow -- maybe a light reflector on the right... But very nicely done. -8-
The image is lacking a clearly focused area to look at. There's not a lot of color variation to provide interest. It could have been cropped much closer since there's a lot of unused space on all sides and four or five cookies would have been plenty.
Mmmmm, cookies....my taste buds swing from thinking these are oatmeal cookies with frosting to ginger snaps with frosting. Either way they taste great with milk:-) Hmmm, that might have been an interesting addition to the composition - the glass of milk complementing the same vertical arrangement of the cookies. But, back the image as it stands - details are good with a warm toned backdrop to complement the cookies. To me, the tree branch shadows on the wall projects the mood of sitting out in the countryside on the bench just enjoying a bite of these cookies. My critique is that I wish that the shadows the cookies cast on the wood table were not so harsh. Don't know what form of lighting you might have been using (flash, natural, or natural light with lamps), but there are two things I could suggest to lessen or eliminate those shadows. You could find something reflective/or a reflector to bounce the light back onto the back of the treats or take a table light/light and shine it onto the back of the treats to evenly balance the light.
Please brace yourself, and take this as intended: as pointers to help improve your photography. ... Next time, watch your focus (this is in front of the standing cookie, should be on the cookies face), Use a smaller diaphragm setting to increase DOF and watch your lighting (e.g place a reflector such as a piece of white foamboard to the right to fill the hard shadows).
This is a tough challenge to vote. I'm torn between "what are you trying to do here" and "what do I expect here". Further complicating matters is the question "what would I do here".
What I would expect would be a technically strong piece of eye-candy that would present the dessert in a way that I would want to at least sample it, if not order it. Along these lines I'm looking at technicals: backgrounds, distracting elements, exposure, sharpness. I'm also looking for creativity, imagination, and originality, which can make up for less than perfect technicals.
So, where does this leave me with your image?
Nice idea, but a little soft. I like the tones, but feel that it is a little imbalanced compositionally.
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