It's a shot of a vase which has a shattered like texture. I knew the lighting would be the key to this shot but didn't realise how hard it would be. In the end I created a ghetto type light box and used a cardboard role to focus a halogen worklight inside the vase from above. There was basically no editing performed - a 1 degree rotate, a crop and resize and I desaturated the magenta channel to hide some lens abberation that the Nikon is famous for. I photographed the setup and might even write a "how did they do that" for it.
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I think you have done an excellent job of lighting this. It really illuminates the "cracks" well, and I like how the skinny part of the neck is brighter than the others. The simplicity of the colors (bw?) are effective in making the eyes focus on the patterns in the glass. The curves of the vase are also very graceful.
I think something that would have added more drama to this shot would be to compose/frame it differently. As it is, the centered location and basically straight on shooting makes the shot a stable one, but it kinda makes the viewer look at it and say, "okay, anything else?" I find my eye wanting somewhere to rest. Maybe if you could have moved in closer and filled the frame up with the vase, even to the point of some of it "spilling" out of the frame, it would have added more interest. Perhaps you could have chosen a perspective that would have really accented the graceful curves.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to PM me. best to you in future challenges.
karmat
Very nice shot - can't think of a thing to improve it - meets challenge, well done technically, and very appealling - very artistic. Good luck in the challenge.
I like your selection of subject. The details are a bit uneaven and the (flecks) at the top of the vase are a bit confusing.
The lighting has been well done to hide the direction it comes from. Well done in avoiding flaring on a difficult subject.
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