I just got my camera a week ago. Before then I'd been using disposable cameras from the drugstore. Needless to say, I know very little about even the basics like aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
Please feel free to comment harshly. I literally threw this together at the last minute and have low expectations. I need to learn so please let me know what I could do to make this better.
Thanks to everyone for all your help in the forums.
You are a patient and kind bunch.
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The DPC crowd is very critical when it comes to "studio" type shots, as nearly all studio shots here seem to be done by professionals or with lightboxes. Personally, I don't even bother with them because I really don't have the equipment to compete in this area. Given that, the content of the picture is well composed. The instruments are unique and is refreshing change to all the "musician" oriented pictures in the challenge.
Some things you might try in the future for these studio/product shots:
Try to isolate the shadows, generally they are not a good thing. Try moving the subject further away from the background if possible (not sure of your camera) you might want to try a larger aperture.
People are tend to look for uniform background color on these type of shots. So White Balance plays an important role. If your camera has a configurable white balance setting change it to incandescent (looks like regular light bulbs to me??) rather than sticking to auto mode which usually does not work well with standard lightbulbs. If you can't set this you might try fixing this in post or maybe switching to a black and white mode. With the right white balance you'll notice colors really POP.
Wrinkles in fabric tend to take away from the shot.
For your first entry, it is pretty good. I have had scores much worse than this, plus take my critiquing lightly as I am not good at these type of shots either. Good luck going forward and hope to see more of your work!
What great instruments! This image could be improved with some of the following - improved lighting - there are too many shadows that distract - fix the focus - it seems much of the image in the foreground is OOF.
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