Let me just start out by saying that I like this image, I gave it a 6 when voting for it. Technically it´s above average in my opinion, the shot is in good focus, sharp and well exposed with good contrast, especially since you have an almost pitch black main subject and almost white surroundings so good job with that.
The main fault I see in this image is the lighting, it´s very harsh wich leads to strong shadows and glare on the cup and on the black reflective backround the cup is standing on. I guess you used your onboard flash to light this? The only way to improve the lighting is to use a bigger lightsource, do you have some means to do that, like to bounce the flash up against something like a white cealing or a reflector?
The composition is a bit cramped but it works fine for me and while I normally dislike frames this one is very fitting for the image. I was going to compliment you for your use of shutterspeed as it worked nicely to "freeze" the coffee pour but I see you wrote "auto" on all the settings for the shot. The reason why I am bringing this up is that I would encourage you to look up these values and think about what they mean and how they can affect your photographs, I know when I started doing that it really helped me understand how to take photographs with certain effects that I previously had no clue on how to capture.
Challenge wise, it fit´s the challenge like a glove, no question and frankly I don´t understand why it didn´t score higher but maybe the main "fault" with the image is that it doesn´t really have that "wow" factor that is so popular here.
Anyway, hope this critique made some sense and I really encourage you to keep it up, I looked at your profile and I saw some pretty good stuff, you definately have the "eye" and are not afraid to experiment and that is always good.
Overall I like the setup and concept. I wish the saucer wasn't cropped so tightly - looks like it's kind of "squished" within your framed borders. I wonder how this would look with a bit more of what I call "breathing space" on the left, bottom and right hand sides?
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
