Playing with glass, long exposure and ambient lighting

[AlwaysOnAuto]

All mixed into one shot at the same time.

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[rtbaum]

I like

[Mike Buckley]

It's a nice composition in that the pieces of diagonally inlaid wood in the tabletop act as leading lines that point toward the subject. If you want to take the time to improve upon the image, details to consider include:

• Eliminating the lost highlights;
• Cleaning the tabletop (it seems to be dirty to the left and right of the subject);
• Eliminating the touch of glare in the tabletop possibly by using a polarizer;
• Attending to the black point and the tone curve to ensure that the image doesn't appear quite so flat;
• Aligning the horizontal strip of wood in the tabletop so it is parallel to the plane of the sensor; and
• Using a different aspect ratio, possibly 8 x 10 or a square format.
  

[ucci]

Very nice capture. I wonder how it would turn out were you to perhaps move the vase? So that it was sitting more on the horizontal strip, with the the tables diagonal inserts on either side of this strip which might then more obviously seem to converge from the top and bottom on the vase, which would be the centre piece sitting between them on the central strip. Just a thought.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Thanks for the input all.
Mike, I tried to clean the table top but it appears there's something on it that only the camera can see, it looks clean to the naked eye.
I don't know what you mean by 'eliminating the lost highlights'.
I think the glare on the table top was caused by some chairs which were reflecting light off their backs.
I honestly thought I'd aligned the sensor with the table, but the room was pretty dark and the wood grain wasn't easily picked up. Guess I should have turned on the lights while setting up.
Ken - I moved the vase down to the location it is in so the background would be table top, not the wall behind the table. I wanted it centered but couldn't get the proper angle so that it'd be a dark background.

[Mike Buckley]

I don't know what you mean by 'eliminating the lost highlights'.

My editing software displayed blinkies and a histogram indicating that the brightest tones were too bright to be recorded by the histogram. You might have been able to eliminate those lost highlights by reducing the exposure at the time of capture, by reducing the exposure of a raw file during post-processing, and/or by using a different white point and tone curve during post-processing.

[IzzieK]

+1 to Ucci's comment...